Day 27, June 14th 2008, beginning in Ada, Oklahoma

Ahh, the morning comes and I practically sprang out of bed ready to feast after dreaming about all of the sweet pastries, fruit and cereal we would be having. We were promised a plentiful buffet, and that was what we got. As a man who understands value, I made sure I got my money's worth. I must have eaten at least 2,000 calories worth of breakfast.

Shortly after breakfast we filled our water bottles at a fountain in the motel and hit the road. The water was pretty terrible. Some places around here don't have great water. In some towns people don't even drink it. Another thing most of us take for granted. Either way, we were excited, we would be in Oklahoma City by the end of the day, and staying with old family friends of Paul's, the Hutchens, from Monroe that he hadn't seen in 8 years! Thanks Nina.

Our first stop brought us to a gas station in Asher. As we were chatting with a few motorcyclists a police officer pulled up and said, "… you have bikers, and then you have REAL bikers" (referring to us of course).

Swelling with pride, we left and headed for Noble, a small town about 40 miles south of Oklahoma City. There we met an owner of a recumbent bicycle shop. You may have never seen them, but they are the bikes you sit down in and the pedals are in front of you and higher than the seat . He was helpful in giving us directions into the city. We fueled up at a gas station, and went for it.

We had planned on taking a bus from Moore, but first we would call up the nice guy by the name of Jim Foreman who has his own website and helped give us detailed directions throughout Oklahoma when the state DOT could not. I called him while biking and we decided to meet up at a Burger King right near his house. We didn't get anything, but just sat down with him for a few minutes and chatted. He was appreciative of us taking the time, and we were of course appreciative of the help he had already given us. From there we determined, with Jim's help, that we would avoid the buses and bike the whole way. It would save us time anyway. It meant another 25 miles of riding though, apparently Oklahoma City is one of the largest metropolitans in the country.

Leaving Jim in the dust as we burned rubber up the road, we were going to bike through Oklahoma City. As it was the end of our week, we were ready for rest. It was a very pleasant ride, and we made good time thanks to the flatness and some tailwinds.

The streets are a bit confusing, and when we got to what we thought was their house we stopped, and got off the bikes, and rested them against the garage. Before Paul rang the doorbell I had him wait a minute while I double checked the street sign. Sure enough, we were one street off. Imagine two exhausted, sweaty bikers showing up at your house looking for a place to stay. Who knows if Paul would even recognize them after all the years. Silliness averted.

Pulling into the actual Hutchens's house, we were greeted with the whole squad including 5 dogs (or so we thought… to be continued), Janie (the mother), Shelby (the daughter), and Bryce (older son). Tyler, who is our age, was on a trip west, and we had unfortunately missed him by a day. We also met Railey (sorry if spelling is wrong), Shelby's child with Kavon, her husband.

Bryce had prepared a delicious meal that we feasted on shortly after our arrival. Just what the doctor ordered. Paul and I had a couple servings each, but were still hungry and didn't want to be impolite, so we waited "patiently". We hovered like vultures in the kitchen until the girls noticed us and realized we wanted to finish off their half eaten dishes. They of course allowed us and within seconds watched food magically disappear before their eyes. Shortly after that we each made ourselves massive bowls of ice cream. That's where it stopped for me, but not Paul. Later that night Paul polished off a 3 taco meal at America's finest, most nutrititious, Mexican establishment, Taco Bell.

Our greatest craving was yet to be satiated. We noticed the Hutchens's extensive movie collection, and mentioned how we really needed to see Dumb and Dumber. They just so happened to have it on VHS… old school… nice touch. In fact, they are nearly as big of fans of the movie as we. We of course recited all the lines, but did notice a few we missed when we did the whole movie from memory that morning.

We would have some time off, and nice comfortable place to sleep with a great family to spend some time with. The long day had finally ended and…

Life was good.