Glenpool to Claremore

April 30, 2025

Good Lord Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise

Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up and it was really storming outside…. thunder and lightning and rain and hail lashing loudly against the side of the building. Woke up this morning to a sky full of storms, again.

Storms coming from the southwest. Doesn’t look like it’s going to end soon. I hadn’t heard thunder for at least an hour so I decided to head out about 9:45. Rain was moderate to heavy.

I’m right about where the I-44 shield is.

I thought, after 10 miles or so I’ll be going through Tulsa for another 20 miles with plenty of places to bail out. Once I get that far I can make another call about carrying on.

Saw this as I was riding through Jenks. Truth in advertising. I looked it up. From the website: “ With lessons from our expert instructors, students can learn to rock out on guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, and vocals across genres. By jamming in a band together with friends while learning to read and play music by ear, students gain the confidence to truly be a rock star.”

My own personal bicycle/pedestrian bridge across the Arkansas River between Jenks and Tulsa. No one else was crazy enough to be out on it today.

Arkansas River. Jenks to the left, Tulsa to the right. With the hood of my rain jacket under my helmet my head looks like a Mario Kart character.

Once across the bridge 10 miles of beautiful bike trail along the river awaited.

There were occasional rumbles of thunder as I rode, but they seemed far away. Until they weren’t. A bright flash and a loud thunderclap a couple seconds later had me looking for shelter. It was a couple miles before I came to this underpass beneath E. 71st St.

The radar said the heavier parts of the storm were catching up with me. I wondered how long I would stuck under the bridge like a troll. After about 20 minutes I was feeling confident again in my chances of survival. There were more rumbles but once again they seemed far away.

While I was contemplating being fricasseed by the lightning, I looked to see if there was a bicycle shop nearby. The chain lube I use was not holding up very well in the deluge and I thought I might try to find some wet lube. By miraculous happenstance Tom’s Bicycles was just a block or two away. When I ventured out into the rain again I made straight for it.

Tom’s Bicycles.The right place at the right time. Wet lube is something not often used around here because the weather is generally dry*, but they were able to dig some up in the back of the shop. * Today is the last day of the wettest April on record in a good part of Oklahoma.

Tom with the gray hair and his minion are granted this tour’s first Road Angel Award for the assistance they provided.

Some very wet, sad pink evening primrose ((I think).

The ever popular multi-pedaled yellow flower.

Downtown Tulsa. Taking my route through Jenks and up the bike trail meant I left U.S. Bike Route 66 back in Sapulpa to follow Adventure Cycling’s Bike Route 66. This corner is where I rejoined the official route.

And what to my wondering eyes should appear around the corner but a coffee shop! Another chance to shake off some of the water ponding up on my person.

In the coffee shop. I’ve discovered that a wet iPhone screen is about as useful as a two-headed tack. I stocked up on paper napkins here to address the situation. The very next time I stopped to take a picture I dropped the napkins into the water by the curb. Best laid plans.

Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios. A sci-fi Muffler Man caught my eye.

Against my better judgment I stopped for a midday quaff in the only Tulsa Brewery open this early in the day (about 1:00 pm).

You’ll notice my bike is now inside. The owner cautioned me about leaving it leaning in front of the building, even though I could see it. Too much “urban traffic” (translation: too many “bike thieves”) in the neighborhood. He said that even if I saw it taken I wouldn’t catch them running in bicycle cleats. Btw, I had a lovely chocolate coconut porter.

Free advertising just outside. Biker stops to dismount, notices he’s next to a brewery, and is sucked inside.

About the time I left the brewery the rain tapered off. From the time I rejoined USBR 66 until I turned north from Tulsa about 10 miles later there was a dedicated bike lane. Unfortunately for a few of those miles one side of the road was closed for construction, and all the two-way traffic was squeezed into two narrow lanes that swallowed up the bike lane. On top of that there was coarse gravel piled up everywhere and my lane (if you could call it that) was under running water. I spent as much time as possible in the construction zone riding the sidewalks and parking lots.

The storms leaving me behind. The storms were moving east, but when they passed a terrific east wind kicked up in my face. I was reduced to 5 mph at times. After about an hour the headwind abated, but not until it sapped a lot of energy.

The bus must really have been moving to cause this pileup.

The Blue Whale of Catoosa. Built in the early 70s. The pond used to be a swimming hole.

They could’ve found a better place to put that faux bamboo power pole.

Bird Creek. And it did rise. There’s as much water flowing through here as there usually is in the Arkansas River in the summer.

Claremore seemed a world away when I rolled out of Sapulpa this morning into the storm. I’m still surprised that I made it this far today. There’s hope that the bulk of the storms are over, and that tomorrow will be a better day. We can dream.

Today's ride: 57 miles (92 km)
Total: 340 miles (547 km)

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Karen PoretAND..a new Month starts tomorrow as well! May :)
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1 day ago

Ed ChimahuskyApril showers bring May flowers….let’s hope that’s what in the future.
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1 day ago

Nancy GrahamYour perseverance through thunder, lightning and rain is more that impressive! I sure wish you better weather for the remainder of your tour. I would hate for you to have to shorten it as I am so enjoying reading your journal.
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1 day ago

George (Buddy) HallWell, this was a fun day for me to read about - there were so many photos of places I have been and still go, it would have gotten old if I commented on them all. I crossed the Arkansas river bridge every day 2017-2020 as I commuted by bicycle to work at the Citiplex building (the 3 towers just a couple of blocks east of the casino on the river you cycled past) - Tom's is a great bike shop - I've been to the coffee shop and brewery you stopped at. Most of all, I can't believe you cycled through that crazy weather - it was raining cats and dogs! Tulsa's trail system is fairly extensive - you can ride from downtown to Sand Springs, or south to Jenks and then east to Broken Arrow - you can actually do a century ride on the trails if you go out and back. I'm enjoying following along on your journey.
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13 hours ago