Oklahoma on Lost in OK

Progress Journal: Setting Baselines

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The nice thing about new journey is that you can set your own baselines. For the first day I got up early enough to take Heidi out for a walk. She is working on her manners and I’m working on loosening up my ankle. Neither makes for a rapid pace, but it does make for a pleasant walk through a pretty town. We took a nice stop at the Guthrie Scottish Rite Temple and another to see what silent film was playing at The Mini Melba Cinema at the crack of dawn. Did 1.83 miles at a 25'49"/MI pace.

Heidi in front of the Scottish Rite Temple.

The Melba Mini Cinema in Guthrie Oklahoma.

My daughter was out of school today so we got the fun of taking a lunch break to walk to her favorite diner in town for lunch along with two of her dolls and about three pounds of accessories. A wonderful way to get a break in the day.

Stats

Weight: 376.5

Rings Progress:

Off My Feet, Back to Blogging?

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

So Christmas this year was a bit more eventful that we had planned. It started as expected, with an excited five year old getting out of bed well before dawn and shrieking with joy when she discovered her milk, cookies, and carrots had all been consumed by Santa and his helpers. Coffee was made for the bleary eyed parents and the opening of presents was comensed and finished by 7:30 AM.

For once, I decided to be a considerate human and rounded up all the wrapping paper trash and took it out to our trash cans. As I was stepping down a small embankment to get to my trash cans, my right leg slipped out in front of me in the snow and my back leg folded up behind me in ways I instantly knew was wrong. I called my wife to come out and she pointed out my I was bleeding from my ankle, so yeah, compound fracture at that.

Thankfully, the Fire Department picked me up in no time flat and by 8 AM I was in the emergency room. X-rays showed that I had broken my tibia down at the ankle joint s well as my fibula up closer to my knee. By 11 AM I was being rolled into surgery, with a slight worry that my surgeon my be a bit annoyed at being brought in on Christmas Day. However, the surgery went well after a couple of days, I was sent home to start what would be a long recovery . . .

Thankfully, so far things have gone well and I’m out of my cast and into a much more comfortable walking boot. But I still have atleast another month of being non-weight bearing and even then it will take several more weeks before I will be really starting to get around. So my view has gotten a bit smaller than it used to be and I’ve got more downtime than I’m used to. So far I’m filling it with a bunch of long ignored home paperwork, guitar lessons and playing in my new group, the Broken Leg Band.

However, one thing I haven’t done in ages is any sort of writing. I was reviewing the blog and realized I kind of dropped the whole travelogue series years before we came off the road. So I’m going to try to start reviving some posts capturing some of the highlights of our five years on the road. I know the site needs some serious design updates as well. In any case, I’m hoping a little reminicing will help change this view . . .

into this . . .

On Being Stationary

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

After the somewhat frantic out and back travel we did for the first three months in the Airstream, we were ready for a break. While we were enjoying the sights, having to head out to a location for only a week or two before heading back to Oklahoma was getting a little tiring. Since we had the holidays coming up plus the kids’ birthdays, we decided to stop traveling for the year in the middle of October.

We settled into a nice little place in Luther, Oklahoma just a few miles from my parents. It was really nice to be settled in one place for a bit to get our bearings and really get used to this tiny house living.

Having a tiny house has some really awesome advantages. For example, doing a complete deep clean of the entire house, including moping, dusting and scrubbing of all the cabinets takes about 45 minutes. We are still really enjoy having so much less stuff in our life. It really is liberating.

It’s safe to say we are both loving our little Airstream, but I would be kidding if there weren’t challenges to living in 200 square feet.

We really haven’t been stepping on each other’s toes too much. However, it’s easy to feel like the walls are closing in, especially in the colder season when being outside isn’t a particularly appetizing proposition. Additionally, that cold weather has forced us to change how we use the trailer’s systems, namely the water systems.

Getting Chilly

One of the rules that many say about living in an RV is that it can’t be camping. This is our home and it needs to feel as comfortable as possible. The discomfort I might put up with for a backpacking trip for a week or two will get old if it’s my daily experience. When it gets really cold, with our exposed underbelly and thin walls, we are forced to drain the water tanks and live a pretty spartan existence. Suddenly, we start feeling like we are living in an aluminum tent and it can be a little stressful.

At the In-Law’s Place

That said, having a house on wheels has had some amazing perks as well. The best of which has been our ability to spend some time with our niece and nephews at their house. My in-laws have about eight acres of land and offered us spot on their lawn. It was fantastic to be house guests without feeling like we were being long-term pests. (At least, we hope it felt that way for my in-laws). Having the kids come over for little backyard adventures was fun for both them and us!

Avery Loves Magda

With that said, we’ve both been feeling restless feet for the last month or so. We’ve been planning and dreaming about getting back out on the road. We are heading south into Texas for a little exploration of the Lone Star State. Grace is looking forward to doing some on-site genealogy of some Texas ancestors. I’m looking forward to some wide open vistas and desert sunsets. And both of us are looking forward to being out on the road for a few months and stretching our traveling legs.

On the Road

Week 3: A Return to Normalcy?

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

So, my three weeks off is coming to an end. It’s been an amazing whirlwind of activity that has moved us closer to our dream of the open road than the last few months combined.

This week was a slow return towards normalcy. I personally spent most of the week doing client work, cleaning email and getting business work taken care of after the craziness of the last two weeks. Kind of nice to write some code again. I didn’t think I would miss it so soon.

However, we also made some great progress on the house as well. The house exterior painting is almost complete. This includes the great new porch color which is really looking nice. We also managed to complete the sale of a few more of our remaining household goods. Things are really starting to look empty around the house …

The really big news of this week was that we went truck shopping this weekend. Thankfully, I was able to enlist the intelligent assistance of my auto-handy brother-in-law, James, for a long day of test driving a large number of extremely large trucks. We finally found our new tow vehicle! Meet Minerva, our 2012 F-250 Diesel Pickup Truck …

This is another one of those big milestones on our journey that seem to have made up the last three weeks. In the long term we hope Minerva will take us a long way down the roads we hope to travel and in the short term, it’s great to have a vehicle that can carry our remaining goods around to donate or store.

So, tomorrow I head back to the day job. We still have a lot of work left to do, including, painting the interior, replacing some flooring and remaining yard work and clean up. However, all of this seems so much more obtainable than when we started this dream a few months back. For awhile, our task list seemed like it stretched into eternity. Now, while there is still so much to do, we are feeling like we have a grasp on the project.

In closing, some sincere thank yous are in order to everyone that has helped us out for the last several weeks. In particular, thanks to my step-father Mark who has guided our construction efforts for the last three weeks. Without him, I’m sure the house would be in much worse shape than when we started. (And thank you to my mother, Hollis, for your advice and allowing us to borrow Mark during this busy time.) I also want to thank our house painter Kevin Jefcoat, who squeezed us in to his schedule on very short notice. I also want to thank my in-laws, Dan and Teresa, for providing us some great flooring for the house. Thank you to my stepkids, Alex and Gwen for being such a huge help setting up the estate sale (at 4 a.m.!). Ahead of schedule, thanks to my aunts, Seddie and Connie, for helping us with the interior painting. I also want to thank my employer for helping get me this time off for all of these projects. Also, a HUGE thank you to James for helping me pick out the perfect truck for our needs and offering to teach me about my new diesel acquisition. (And thank you to my sister-in-law Allie for letting us borrow James.)

We also want to extend a big thank you to everyone who dropped by our estate sale and everyone following along and cheering us on during the start of this big adventure. Your kind words and encouragement help more than you can know!

Week Two Construction and Downsizing Update

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I think there is an inverse correlation between the frequency of blogging and how busy someone is. The silence here should be indicative how exactly how insane the last week was for the both of us. However, as far as making progress on our dreams, this was the best week yet.

We started off at a fairly calm pace. Mark and I did a large quantity of tree pruning, replaced one wall of paneling on the old detached garage and finished getting the porch squared up and ready to go. Grace continued getting ready for our estate sale which was scheduled for this last Saturday.

My house painter, the excellent Kevin Jefcoat (if you are looking for someone), got us squeezed into his tight schedule and started making great progress on the house exterior. We were also able to get a yard crew in to do some serious rehabbing on the yard, long neglected by yours truly.

It wasn’t till Wednesday night that Grace was finally able to pound it into my thick head that we owned a lot more stuff than I ever understood. Thus began two very long days and nights of hauling, sorting, stacking and pricing.

It has been less than a year since our last garage sale and I had thought we had already made a lot of progress. This time around has taught me a bit about my personality that I really am not fond of. I’ve spent an enormous portion of my life collecting an incredible amount of what could be politely described as detritus and more accurately be termed as crap.

Some of this is your standard consumerism stuff but a lot of it is my obsession with old oddities. In this group, there are true oddities such as weird balances for measuring the specific density of substances, fossils dug up on childhood camping trips and WW I trench lighters. But, there were many more perceived rarities which turn out to be anything but. One example was an extremely beat up old copy True to the Old Flag, by G.A. Henry, a history of the American Revolution from the British point of view. Turns out this book is well known, has never gone out of print and is available in any number of formats.

No matter what, I think it will be extremely important for me to put my “Ooh, that’s odd” and “Ooh, that could be useful someday” natural attitude to acquisition in check if I’m ever going to make living in 200 square feet really work.

However, this first extremely large pass at downsizing went well, if at a frenetic pace. We were able to get the vast majority of stuff ready to go for the sale. Even better, we were able to sell a huge quantity of it in a massive one day sale that started at 4:00 AM. I owe an especial level of gratitude to the many old and new friends that made an effort to come by and pick up a few items!

By the end of the day, we were more exhausted than I can remember, but felt extremely satisfied that so much progress has been made towards this big change in our lives. Grace commented today that the emptier house is her first indication that this is really going to happen. I can second that motion.

Today, we were kind of forced by soreness and sleepiness to work at a much more leisurely pace. We mostly spent the day attempting to put the remaining house back into some semblance of order, assisting in the pickup of some of the larger sold items and to start boxing up the rest of the items that will be donated to charity. Of course, all we really wanted to do was to be like Opie on a nice sunny afternoon . . .

Week One Construction Update

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been amazing to see what can get done in a week if you can get the time to focus on it. I started this week with a laundry list of home and garden tasks, some of which I had been ignoring for years. I end this week with some major projects done and progress on many others.

The major task of this week was my front porch which has been long needing to be re-decked. With diligent effort, Mark and I were able to finish this, which is the most daunting of my repairs, within the week.

I spent this weekend was spent clearing brush, shrubs and trimming trees, especially around the building structures in preparation for the exterior house painting. Now I have several dozen trees to chop up and put in the dumpster.

In the mean time, Grace has been frantically working to keep our business up and running while also priming the front porch and prepping us for our estate sale which is happening next weekend.

We have a lot of irons in the fire, but so far we are keeping up with them all and it’s great to finally see real progress towards our dreams.

Lake Overholser Water Release

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

After 3 years of endless drought, we here in central Oklahoma at least, were with desperately needed rain. It’s gotten so extreme, that our city reservoirs must release water to prevent flooding. After a tip from my Mother, Grace and I took a little photo date down to the Lake Overholser Dam to catch some photos and videos of the water release. Now if we could get some more rain for western part of the state, things would be really looking good.

Overholser water release 1

Overholser water release 2

Overholser water release 3

Overholser water release 4

Overholser water release 5

Overholser water release 6

Overholser water release 7

Overholser water release 8

Photo jun 05 5 28 33 pm

Photo jun 05 5 32 22 pm

Photo jun 05 5 39 27 pm

#30DaysofBiking Day 22-23: Back to the Grind

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

#30DaysofBiking Day 22

I guess the best thing about day 22 was that there was nothing unusual about day 22. It was the first day in awhile were I just rode to work and back. The headwind on the way home was a bit strong, but it wasn’t too bad. Little did I know what the next day had in store for me.

#30DaysofBiking Day 23

I thought it was supposed to be spring. It’s not supposed to be near freezing with drizzle and harsh northerly winds. Thankfully, I haven’t put my cold weather gear away, but I sure wish I could. The ride to work was painfully slow with one point where the wind almost pushed me backwards. However, it was still a nice ride, and as always, after about the first 5 minutes, I got warmed up and it wasn’t too uncomfortable. I just hope I can quit wearing all of this gear regularly soon . . .

After work, I had an OBS board meeting which gave me a chance to take a longer ride down past Lake Overholser, which has been too long in coming. With a wonderful tailwind and the joy of a night ride on empty streets, I had a blast coming home to a nice warm house.

#30DaysofBiking Days 19 - 21: Progress!

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Still haven’t been able to get back completely into the regular posting schedule, but thankfully I’ve been able to keep riding!

#30DaysofBiking Day 19: Just Another Day at Work

I continue to get most of my cycling through my daily commute to work. The big change I’ve made is to start riding more and more in my work clothes instead of always wearing a change. My short ride is only 6.5 miles and, at least during the spring, if I take it easy I can arrive at work, refreshed but not horribly sweaty. I think we cyclists can often make our rides too complicated and think we need more gear and kit

After work, I stopped by the project house to do some painting as we get the house ready to be listed for sale. It feels better and better as we get closer to getting this house listed.

#30DaysofBiking Day 20: House is Listed!

Spent the morning getting some last-minute cosmetic stuff finished up on the interior of the house and giving the house a good clean before our Realtor came by to take pictures and let us know if she saw any issues before we listed the house. Thankfully, she didn’t outside of a little bit of painting in the garage and some landscaping in the back. We are finally getting closer to getting the house sold. If you are looking for a cute 1100 sq. ft. house on the northwest side, please give Jane O’Toole a call at 751-4848 or at janeotoole@remax.net. The house has a new roof, new sewer line and new carpet. It’s a perfect starter home and is move-in ready!

Took a nice relaxed ride home after we were done. It felt great!

#30DaysofBiking Day 21: A Laid Back Day.

Stopped by the project house to finish up most of the little punch list items for the house including the painting and the leveling of a little earth settling in the back yard. Took a wonderfully long nap in the afternoon. After dark, I took a quick ride around the block in the still of the evening to get my ride in for the day. A perfect relaxing day.

#30DaysofBiking Days 13 - 18: Failure, Triumph and Baseball

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

After a very long and tiring week, I’m finally getting a chance to catch up on my #30DaysofBiking posting.

#30DaysofBiking Day 13 - Failure

And then I have to start with a failure on my 30 day goal. As I’ve long been reporting, I have toiled away on the replacing of a sewer line. While it has been a great learning experience, a fantastic workout and the source of innumerable Cool Hand Luke jokes, it was also drug on much longer than I would have hoped or dreamed. Saturday was hopefully going to be my last day of moving dirt and finally this long project could start becoming a distant memory.

I got started about 9:00 in the morning after a nice night’s sleep confident that all would be done by mid-afternoon. However, when mid-afternoon came and went followed by late afternoon and early evening, things were looking bleak. By the time dusk rolled around, I knew that even after over 10 hours of solid labor, there was no way I was going to get the job done that night.

That disappointing news left me absolutely slaughtered. I crawled home and found a couch. After dozing off and on, I noticed it was getting close to the end of the day, but so depressed at not getting the job done, I broke my pledge to #30DaysofBiking and took the night off. I feel bad about it now, but at the time it just seemed like the only thing to do.

#30DaysofBiking Day 14 - Baseball

Sunday, I knew I really needed a day off. Thankfully, I had a perfect way to start making up for coming up short the day before and to get some stress relief. The OBS had put together a great little ride out to a Redhawks game. While the home didn’t come even close to winning, it was a great time out with a bunch of nice folks and with a nice 14 mile laid back ride to boot.

#30DaysofBiking Day 15 - Back to the Day Job

Monday was the day I had try to get caught up after the last weeks time away. Email backlogs and frantic post-vacation catch-ups don’t usually make for a nice return. Thankfully, I got a nice ride to and from work to help keep me calm and relaxed. After work it was back to the digging, which once again, given the short time, didn’t get done. However, finally, a lot of progress was made which left me with encouragement that in one more day, it would be done!

#30DaysofBiking Day 16 - Ding, Dong the Ditch is dead.

I got a pre-dawn start and while I was very late in getting to work, at least I was finally, at long last, able to finish filling in the ditch. You have absolutely no idea how good it felt to go to work with this weight off my shoulders. It felt even better for the ride home with the ability to a nice evening away from the project house.

#30DaysofBiking Day 17 - Rained Out

A stormy day kept me from commuting today, but I made sure to get back out there that evening for a ride around the block.

#30DaysofBiking Day 18 - Winter Returns

A Cold Morning

The morning started off rather cold and extremely windy. I don’t think I made much more than 12 mph all the way to work. All I hoped for is that the wind would hold out till the evening, which it did. Rode back to the project house to help with some painting work. The Realtor will be taking pictures this weekend, so there is a lot to get done in the mean time.

#30DaysofBiking Day 12 - Casual Riding

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

It was great to be back at work, even though there is much upon which to catch up. I was too tired last night to get all of my stuff ready for my commute back to work, and to top it all off, I slept in a bit too late this morning. No time to find all my ride clothes, pack my lunch, check the air pressure, etc. etc. So instead I did something most unusual, I just hopped on my bike in my work clothes and just rode to work. The temp was about 40 degrees which allowed me to pedal at a decent pace and still arrive to work fresh and happy. It’s an important thing for me to remember that I don’t need to over think my ride to work. Of course, in July when it’s 90 degrees at 6 am, it’s a slightly different story.

After work, I rode back to the grand canyon to continue filling it in. Still slow going, but getting closer. The ride home shortly after dark was a great help to loosen the sore muscles and to cool down. A good day of light riding to be sure.

The End and New Beginning of OKC Bicyclist

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

When I started OKC Bicyclist in 2008, on-line communities for Oklahoma City cyclists were pretty much non-existent. There were a few mailing lists, but there was no consistent source for area cycling news including both events and advocacy. Since then, much has changed both in the local cycling community and with the ways and means to collect and distribute news. We’ve seen both large advocacy groups such as the Oklahoma Bicycling Coalition and personal advocacy efforts such as Susan Lash’s All For the Love of Bikes dramatically expand their on-line outreach. In my own small way as the VP of the Oklahoma Bicycle Society, I have tried to expand their blogging and on-line outreach as well. And then there is the technology explosion of Twitter and Facebook which has completely changed how to distribute interesting news and links. At this point, the idea of a link blog such as OKC Bicyclist is a bit of an anachronism and has become a burden for me to maintain.

I have not lost my passion for cycling or cycling news, but, for the reasons listed above, the need for a news site is much less and personal advocacy is now much more my passion than simple reporting. Now I could change OKC Bicyclist to an individual advocacy blog separate from my personal site, but that would still leave me with two sites with two different voices. The fact is that between my day job, my upcoming wedding, trying to get a consulting business off the ground and my work with the OBS and OBC, there just isn’t time to maintain two sites. Therefore, in a couple of weeks I will be merging OKC Bicyclist with my personal site Lost in OK and redirecting all links to there. This will both dramatically simplify my life and allow me to be much more personal in my bicycle writings.

With all that said, OKC Bicyclist is not completely disappearing and in some ways, it may now become much more active and dynamic. While you are free to follow me at Lost in OK or at @lostinok, those feeds will have a lot of non-cycling stuff in them which may not really be interesting to you. Therefore, I will continue to maintain and update both the OKC Bicyclist Twitterand Facebook feeds. Without the need to write commentary on every local news link I come across, I think you can expect to see a much more responsive and active distribution of cycling news both via Twitter and Facebook in the weeks to come.

Closing a site that I have labored with for the last five years was not an easy decision, but is the only one I think that is practical and personally fulfilling. Please feel free to leave any comments or suggestions. And as always, I hope to see you out on the road!

A Lake with Water

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A Lake with Water

The lake looks so much nicer with water in it.

Buyer Beware for Ride in OKC

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

2/22/2013: New information about this ride has been posted to OBS.

In my duties with the Oklahoma Bicycle Society, I was alerted about a potential ride scam going on here in OKC that I think everyone should be aware of. My full story on the scam is as follows:

OBS has been alerted by a kind reader about a potential scam ride that has made its way to Oklahoma. The Bike The City ride was announced as a ride in Dallas, going along Hwy. 75 to McKinney. The ride “organizers” announced that they had permission to shut down Hwy. 75 for the route, which if you know anything about Dallas, would be a truly amazing feat of organization and governmental cooperation.

BikeDFW investigated these claims (http://www.bikedfw.org/bike_the_city_tour_buyer_beware) and discovered the following:

No permits had been acquired from any of the cities.

Bike The City had falsely claimed that the cities of Dallas, Plano, Richardson and McKinney were sponsoring the ride.

It would have been extremely unlikely that a permit would ever be given to close down this route.

However, until extremely recently, Bike the City was still collecting registration fees for the ride. Within the last few weeks, the ride site has now changed to state that a ride will take place in OKC.

This ride appears to be just as suspicious as the ride in Dallas. The following are red flags that we believe should keep riders from registering for the ride:

The ride route has a large number of turns which would require a large number of manned stations and would be confusing for the maximum 5,000 riders being allowed on the route.

The ride route would require a large section of Lincoln Ave. and two good-sized sections of Classen Blvd. to be closed which would, like Hwy. 75 in Dallas, be difficult to do.

The ride FAQ states that, “We have communicated with every jurisdiction regarding their requirements and suggestions dating back to last July. Our traffic engineer has completed plans for the race, and we are working with area police chiefs on acquiring Public Safety Officers.” This ride was, as of early January, being planned for Dallas, and therefore we would see no reason that these permits would have been sought for OKC from last July.

The website for the Dallas ride is still active with Dallas information: http://www.bikedallas.net/

Finally, the registration page still has all of the information from the Dallas ride still included.

All of these flags lead us to discourage any riders from registering for this event. We will inform you if we get any additional information. Thanks to Laura P. from Dallas for alerting us about this situation.

via Blog | Oklahoma Bicycle Society.

Update 02/21/2013 3:44 PM: Local media in Dallas are covering the sketchy nature of the cancellation of the Dallas ride - http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2013/02/organizers_cancel_dallas-to-mc.php

The xx @ Cain's Ballroom - 02/15/2013

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Grace and I took the drive up to Tulsa on Friday night to see The xx at Tulsa’s historic Cain’s Ballroom this last Friday evening. Since we both had to work on Friday, we already knew it was going to be a big rush to get there and then we ran into horrendous traffic on the way resulting from a crash between a car and a bus carrying prisoners. We were over an hour late and a little stressed out, but we really shouldn’t have been worried. The modern concert style of being at least an hour late for starting the show served us well.

The opening act was a group called Austra about which I had heard great things, but in person didn’t do much for me. Thankfully, the convenient layout of Cain’s with the bar next door gave us a place to sit and a chance to run into our friend Aaron and catch up.

The xx in Rainbow Light

The xx put on a great show. Moody, atmospheric almost electronica music might not always work live, but with them it did. And even if it hadn’t, the amazing light show they put together would have made it worth while. They maintained a great emotional mood and sounded amazingly tight as a live group. While I haven’t enjoyed their second album, Coexist, much at their amazing self-titled début, but I really enjoyed both live.

My only complaint may just be an old-fogey moment, but I was astounded by the number of people who maintained ongoing, loud conversations throughout the show. Now, I must admit that this may not be a new thing, because in my youth I primarily listened to such loud bands that conversations wouldn’t have been audible under any circumstances. However, no matter how long this has been going on, it was more than a little irritating to hear an amazing din of conversation over the top of a live band.

Aaron 8482227349 o

Dancing 1 8483336842 o

Dancing 2 8482246845 o

The xx 8482230415 o

The xx 8482231105 o

The xx 8482232047 o

The xx 8483321064 o

The xx 8483335712 o

Registration Open for the 2nd Annual Luke's 5-line Ride

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I reported last year about 14-year-old Luke Nefus’ unique 5-Line Ride up in the Oklahoma Panhandle where, if you take on the longest ride, you’ll touch 5 states in one day while raising monies for Livestrong. Well, thankfully, he is doing it again this year, September 20 - 22nd, and early registration is now open.

The following distances will be available this year:

120 Miles, the full distance which touches 5 states (CO, NM, OK, TX and KS).
95 Miles, touches 4 states(CO, NM, OK and TX)
60 Miles, the Santa Fe Trail Route, touches 3 states (CO, NM and OK)
40 Miles, touches 3 states (CO, NM and OK)

Between now and March 31, registration is $175, between April 1st and June 30, $200 and after July 1st, $250. It is important to note that all but $50 dollars of your registration amount is tax-deductible with the remaining funds going to Livestrong.

Your registration includes the following:

2 nights of lodging at Camp Billy Joe.
Pre and post ride meals on the day of the ride, September 21st.
Post-ride entertainment featuring The Dizzy Pickers
Limited edition T-Shirt for the full 5 line riders, with all riders receiving a T-Shirt.
Gift bag
Hot Showers
Sag support and fully stocked water/nutrition stations.
Rider protection provided by ICE.events

Full details about the ride can be found at http://lukes5line.com.

I really think this is a unique riding experience is an area of Oklahoma few of us ever get to ride in given the lack of towns and people in that neck-of-the-woods. I personally can’t wait to ride in it this year (I didn’t have time last) and I hope this ride really starts to take off!

Snow on Mars

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

It’s amazing what a little snow can do to spruce up a drought stricken lake.

Cyclist Killed in Hit-and-Run Overnight in OKC

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

58-year-old Joseph Edward Helmka was struck by a vehicle around 3:00 AM last night near the corner of NW 10th and MacArthur. He was spotted by a passing motorist and was rushed to the hospital but he expired before arriving at the hospital. Police are asking anyone with information regarding this crash to contact them at 405-235-7300.

Kristy Kruger

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A Night at Junior's

nathan@lostinok.com (Nathan Lorenz) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

We have become a serious set of homebodies these days, so it is nice when my friend Iva comes into town. She can always get us out for an evening of fun, like a night of drinks and laughs at the ever eccentric Junior’s.

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