Coasting Clear Here
For Bikers

June 15, 1979

By ROB KERBY
Of the World Staff

The sun had just begun to wake tranquil Okmulgee State Park as the first bicyclist pedaled away Thursdays: Locksley Lantz, 64, Judy Barto, 24, Karen Connley, 16, Earl Larking, 46, and the Hendersons - David and Judy and Wade, 12, Andy, 10, and Elizabeth, 8.

the air was clear and pure. The only sounds were awakening insects, frogs croaking down on the lake... and softly clicking derailleurs.

The single adults, children and parents stretched out sun-baked legs and took experimental turns around their cleared campsites.

Folded tents and sleeping gear were already aboard the Facet Enterprises truck.

Automatically, each wrapped fingers around handlebar brake handles and checked over lightweight machines that - after four days of the Tulsa World and Tulsa Wheelmen's Free Wheel '79 - were a part of their being.

Down the wooded hills each turned toward Tulsa, no one really saying anything - no one wanting to disturb the peacefulness.

"This is the very best part of the day," quietly noted Larkin, an enthusiastic man who seldom speaks softly. "This is the part that most people enjoy the most."

By day's end, each - except Lantz and cohort Wayne Beebe, also 64 - would have passed quietly through Tulsa and up to Sand Springs' city golf course, finishing 299 miles of the 431-mile, week-long ride.

They would speed through Tulsa with southerly winds gusting 24-26 mph at their backs.

Tulsans Lantz and Beebe, following earlier plans, would reluctantly head home.

Each had started Free Wheel '79 Sunday, struggling the first day against harsh north winds, wondering what idiocy they'd undertaken. Still exhausted, determined to give the thing a second chance, they'd continued onward Monday. And the day had been better.

It would be Wednesday before southerly winds were strong at their back.

But Thursday:

"this is the nicest day so far. It's been getting better and better," said Jim Kirby, Oklahoma City.

His wife, Coleen - her face shielded from the sun with the white goo of zinc oxide cream - talked about the couple's independent Wednesday side trip: a visit to singer Woody Guthrie's home in Okemah.

"It's all tumbled down and people have left messages scribbled on the wall..."

With them at a gas station near Glen Pool rested Bruce Grazier, 14.

"I was riding by myself until I caught up with them," he said, simply. "It's a lot nicer riding with somebody."

In Kiefer's ancient Chapman's Drug Store, riders ate Popsicles and chatted with proprietor Minerva Chapman, 86.

Nothing like Free Wheel '79 had ever passed through Kiefer, she said

"My wife's parents wondered about me before, but now..." laughed George Hall, whose in-laws would be checking on daughter Anita at the Sand Springs campgrounds. "Before I let her come with me, I gave Anita a minimum of 30 miles in three weeks with one day that had to be 50 miles."

Thursdays night, only a few riders filled the Sand Springs campgrounds, instead opting for their own beds nearby - even through they attended the special program provided by the city's Jayceettes, the Alpha Nu mothers club, the Lions club and Charlie and the Goodtimers.

Friday, riders leave Sand Springs for Bartlesville.

They leave any time from sunrise to 9 a.m. The route is patrolled by four "sag wagons," three Highway Patrol units, a highway department truck, a repair truck a mobile photo lab and miscellaneous local law enforcement officers.

Amid the 175-200 remaining riders are about 125 who started at Texoma Dam and intend to make it every inch of the way to Chetopa, Kan., Saturday.

"Love that wind," sighed Doug Lemasters, 16, Thursday afternoon.

At Tulsa's 51st Street and Union Avenue: "Love that hill," said Karen Connley.

Down the slope tore the Christopherson twins, Kim and Tracy, 16. A pack of teen-ager racers showed off ahead and behind.

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