June 11, 1982

By ROB KERBY
Of the World Staff

STILWELL - "You promised me a week I would never forget." said the gray-haired FreeWheel '82 bicyclist in wet tennis shoes.

Mark Johnson, 53, and electronics technician from Tulsa, sipped free Kool-Aid offered by Boy Scouts at Cookson Hills Christian School newa Scraper. He leaned on a 10-speed bicycle borrowed from a friend's teen-age son.

A north wind had pushed him all morning through the Lake Eucha valley down Oklahoma 10 beside the Illinois River.

Out by the road, scout Bobby Matthews, 11, waved riders down and sent them toward the shady drink stand behind several school buildings.

"I feel like a kid again," said Johnson and perhaps 400 other bicyclists remained on the week-long adventure Thursday after torrential rainstorms inundated the Jay campgrounds and sent some discouraged riders home.

Flooding and the threat of impending hail and high winds had forced the evacuation of FreeWheel's city park tent city Wednesday night.

Getting the riders to safety became a community effort with farmers arriving with horse trailer and pickups, one pastor arriving with a church bus and officials packing a community center and gymnasium with drenched, shivering vacationers.

The ride's official "sag wagon" - trucks from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the National Guard - and the MK&O tour bus "Super Sag" made multiple trips long into the early morning.

Shortly before midnight, Jay Mayor Jim Fry, Chamber of Commerce President David Dunham and Jay police roused Wal-Mart department store manager Rick Bayless, who opened his store and sold Tulsa World officials $400 worth of blankets - virtually all he had in stock.

And at the crack of dawn, the drying out began. Vehicles packed with soggy tents, clothing and sleeping bags were unloaded by volunteer riders. At sunrise, many riders simply went off down the road, assured that their tents, clothes and gear would meet them in Stilwell. There, Chamber of Commerce workers and FreeWheelers who agreed to give up a day of their ride spent the morning laying out baggage, sorting through muddy clothing dropped in the hectic evacuation and stringing clotheslines.

Bonnie Foster, 11, and Valerie Parkhill, 13, who had pedaled all the way from Guthrie to Jay, caught riders to Stilwell and spent part of their morning clipping hundreds of clothespins to hundreds of feet of clothesline.

"You have to tell yourself that this adds to the adventure," said Mrs. Sarah Ragsdale, a grandmother who has been on three FreeWheels. This year, she brought along several youngsters from her hometown of Rose.

Wednesday in Disney, riders were greeted by scores of welcoming signs and residents standing on Main Street, waving and cheering them on.

The South Grand Lake Chamber of commerce, the Disney Chamber of Commerce, the Jay Sports Association, a special education group and such youngsters as Bobbi Lawson, 11, Casey Lawson, 10, and Scott Winfield, 11, hawked fruit, snacks and drinks.

Thursdays, stands ranged from tables set up by children to fireworks stands stocked with fast food, fruit and drinks.

Riders were welcomed and feted Thursday night by the Stilwell Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis clubs, the local Soroptimist chapter, the Stilwell Study Club, employees of Facet Enterprises and members of three area Home Extension clubs.

While some riders hurried down the day's 66-mile course - pushed by a strong north wind - others lingered along the river, swimming three and for times.

When riders finally wandered into Stilwell's campgrounds at the middle school, they were treated to a sunset Bluegrass concert.

Featuring the Elgin Blue Mountain Boys, it lasted into the night. During one pause, a 12-speed bicycle was raffled off.

Thursday's festivities in Stilwell were the result of 'an all-out community effort," said Chamber of commerce President Mark Hodson.

"We've just all worked together to get ready for this thing," agreed chamber official Hugh Zimmerman. The two had prepared for months, working with FreeWheel volunteer Bob Childress, a past president of the Tulsa Wheelmen bicycle club.

Dinner was heaping plates of macaroni, served up in the school cafeteria. Coordinating the meal was the Stilwell Home Demonstration Club, working with members from numerous civic clubs.

Proceeds went to a chamber fund and will be distributed around to groups which helped out.

Despite FreeWheelers' reputation for skipping breakfast, the Kiwanis club is throwing an all-community pancake feed Friday morning.

"It just looked like a good time to have one, so we've invited everybody,"said Hodson.

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