4
This landing was a temporary one, as all landings in Oklahoma City should be. Work, life, and other various side projects interrupted Le Grand Tour du Fromage as such things inevitably do. My girlfriend Fiona (a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty) and I escaped for a week of riding in Australia, my riding buddy Abi (a.k.a Dark Meat Snack) caught up on sleep, baseball and sleep; while, to help us keep things on track, Unleaded graciously flew to Houston to helpfully retrieve Abi's Concours and return it to Oklahoma City for him.
In a personal, soft-n-mushy aside; during this interim period, I became the proud godfather of Keith's beautiful daughter Danica. It was a special and important occasion; so important I even dug out my one good tie and, after a few unsuccessful attempts, remembered how to tie it.
My Goddaughter Danica
Six weeks later, that same old burning itch had returned. Fortunately the pills the doctor prescribed cleared that little condition up quickly! After a week spent broadcasting WWE TV shows concluded somewhere or other, Dark Meat and I scratched that itch by returning to Okey Dokey Hokey Pokey City, turned ourselves around, ready to take our ride full circle, back to California. That's what it's all about!
The Godfather with Godchild, Neighbor Ron, Unleaded and Dark Meat Snack, ready to run for the border.
While I didn't have a Map-kin drawn up for this half of the ride, plenty of planning went into the return journey. Fiona had two separate flights booked to join the ride on two separate occasions. Abi and I had to be in Denver by Friday for the WWE extravaganza the following week. Since the show was in Denver, a bunch of the crew that ride motorcycles were planning to fly in early, rent some bikes, and ride the Rocky Mountains with us.
I never knew what the word 'awry' meant until I started making ambitious plans like these.
Our little motorcycle gang rolled out of OKC heading for the hills of Colorado. Unfortunately, Keith and Ron had to turn around after a few hours and return home, but it was nice to be accompanied out of the city.
On The Road Again!
Oklahoma reminded me of Dark Meat's home state of Florida, except with less curves. Florida boasts 11 curves in 318 miles, which, thanks to the Daytona International Speedway, beats western Oklahoma by exactly four.
At Ron and Keith's turn-around time, Abi and I had a decision to make. Press on, or start looking for a place to stay for the night. I found a place called the Pit Stop that looked like it'd be pretty cheap, but, for some reason, Abi wanted to press on.
Yeah, maybe not.
After fond farewells, we drove in a straight line straight through the very straight Oklahoma Panhandle, turning exactly twice to avoid a farmer's field. Boise City became our home for the night, and, at $59 a room, I'm able to say the motel was an ever-so-slight improvement over the Pit Stop.
The next morning we turned north on a direct heading for Denver, cautiously watching for large animals lumbering across the remainder of Oklahoma's flat expanses.
A few hours later, hours filled with more straight, flat roads and wandering minds, we saw the best thing there is to see in Western Oklahoma.
Sleeping Beauty's flight was scheduled to land in Denver at five. My friend Mike, who lives in Colorado already had picked up his rental and was waiting for us to arrive at his house for 'beer and BBQ.' The rest of the WWE motorcycle 'gang' had staggered arrivals throughout the night, ready to pick up their rentals and ride the Rockies for a few fun days. Since we were in a little bit of a time crunch, naturally we got stuck in construction traffic. Never fails.
Dark Meat Nap did what he does best in these situations, or to be honest, what he does in most situations, shut down to conserve his energy.
While sitting still, stopped in traffic, my phone started ringing. I checked it, and had three texts, two voicemails and five missed calls. Normally, that's the amount of phone traffic I have in a month, so I knew something - something big - was up.... and I also knew that somehow, the best laid plans were about to go awry.
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