Tulsa, Oklahoma

Damn you Rogers and Hammerstein, you were spot on with your first line musical analysis of the weather patterns here. Luckily I wasn't trying to pedal fast coming in to Tulsa, so the wind didn't make me so mad.
We officially entered the land of y'all, where people use the phrase for real, not just consciously throwing it around in casual conversation. The pastor from the church in Tulsa came to Vinita to ride with us the whole route. I didn't speak with him once because I was having an indepth conversation with Natalie. I usually ride in a paceline where I'm pushing it hard and it's too windy to hear or speak in a single file line. However, today I decided to take it slow and I ended up cycling the whole 70 miles with Natalie, playing fun games and having the best conversation ever. I'd tell you what it was about, but that would compromise the secret. It made the ride truly enjoyable and the time simply fly by. I think the rest of the trip will be at a slower talking pace. On historic route 66, we passed the largest totem pole in the world and a strange whale roadside attraction. Prom update: Max asked Emma to prom at lunch today by hanging up a sharpie written message on a tablecloth on a streetsign. When she rode up, he burst through it with flowers in his hand. Oh the things we do to keep ourselves amused. Bike and build is a microcosm of awesomeness because our biggest worries are what's for dinner, where are the showers, and who do I ask to prom. It's like being five again, where there are no real problems and the world is much more beautiful because of that. The most amazing part of riding through cattle country is that animals actually watch you. I'm so intrigued when cows see me riding by and they all lift their heads up and watch me glide down the pavement. Sometimes I ring my bell to get their attention, but most of the time they offer it unprovoked. There is something oddly fascinating with 10 hours a day of eye contact with cows. Dinner at the church was a huge potluck at Bethany Lutheran Church. It was close to the biggest spread of food we've eaten; there were 5 different kinds of meatloaf. I sat with Sara and like last time we had dinner with locals in Rushville, we chatted them up real good! This miraculously cute couple who had been married for 57 years shared stories of their life with us. The man had asked out the woman several times in highschool by giving her business card sized printed requests. She kept saying no because she wasn't old enough to date. But, she did save all those cards. They told us stories of love and humor, chance encounters and pure nostalgia. My eyes were glowing with excitement as I ate up all their reminiscing of times when they drove a car with a front crank and fell in love out of the public eye. As nighttime fell, about 18 of us rounded up to go to a country dancing bar a couple miles away that we had heard good things about. Oh My God is all I can say. Through the smoke of tobacco products and clanking of beer bottles, I peered through packed tables to see a dance floor of wonder. This was a totally new experience than anything I've ever seen in my life. The men wearing tight jeans, cowboy boots, collared shirts, and ten gallon hats, spun their partners round and round on the dance floor. Everyone moved in a counterclockwise circle, two stepping and twirling evert which way when the urge arose, so very often. This was the real deal, and since my dancing skills don't extnd anywhere past amateur hour, I was intimidated from first sight. But within minutes, I grabbed the closest woman and dragged her on the dancefloor. We stood out like records in a CD shop and everyone could tell we were foreign to this dance and lifestyle. I'm a Connecticut Yankee with no clue about the south. Lucky for us all I have no shame, so I danced the night away, not even coming close to understanding the dance style. I thought it was going to be country line dancing, but that only happened for three songs that were too complex for me to catch on to. But again, that didn't stop be from trying. In a strange turn of events, they ended up playing some pop hip hop dance music for about three songs. Immediatley everyone in a cowboy hat was gone. Women swarmed the dancefloor and I was back in my element as our group circled up and dominated the disgusting girations we called dancing. Three 40 year old blonde ladies were dancing close by and I took it upon myself to invite them to our party by dancing in a provocative manner that drew applause from my comrades. Authentic country dancing in Oklahoma, one of the best nights of my life. We knew we were in the south because outside this huge bar, was a mobile BBQ smoking meat with an aroma born in heaven. Tulsa isn't a very large city, but they sure know how to have a good time.

Another great build day in the books. After setting off with a good breakfast in our bellies, we were met at the work site with bagels and doughnuts. Not being one to let food go to waste, I chowed face excessively. This set me up for a full morning of success laying sod in the heat on about 3/4 acre. What an awesome task to set up or a group like ours because there was always work to be done and no one sat around doing nothing. We finished the whole lawn by 1000 and then tested it out by taking a nap on it. After that we were shuttled to another site where we painted like Picasso, only our final product was slightly less ambiguous. For the rest of the day we taped and painted the porch, total interior of the house, and shed. For lunch we walked a block away to a BBQ cooked for us by a local family where some people swam and we all played with four boxer puppies. Dinner was at a different church than last night and we were met by a man and his family who saw us in St. Louis and live in Tulsa. They brought us a ton of ice cream and sprinkles that we enjoyed while our presentation crew gave their talk to the parish. After dinner we got a nice treat. A group of people who work for Samson Oil and co sponsored the habitat builds in Tulsa offered to chauffeur us around. They had volunteered with us today and were already going down as some of the nicest and hardworking people I've met, but this put them over the top. A man, ney, The man, Daryl gave a tour to five of us. He drove us around town showing us cool architecture and all the sights to take in. We drove and walked for a couple hours to explore the diverse building styles of mansions all over the place. Tulsa has some pretty good oil money around the city so there were some sizeable estates. I was shocked to be walking around such a beautiful and clean city and see no people. On a Friday night at 9pm the streets were empty. I saw maybe 3 people walking the streets and we were told that was about normal. It was like a ghost town. Our tour included a ton of interesting information about Tulsa and Oklahoma. We learned what a Sooner was, bonus points if you know. See you later.