4-9-11 Saturday Ride to Jenks and Pawnee

Our official Mole leader today is Steve and Jennifer.  We meet at 7:30 at gas station across from Bass Pro Shop, and our leaders made it about 7:45.   Attending todays ride along with us and the Alvey's are Carolyn, Mark, John and Nan.  Nan decided she would like to go, but wasn't sure about her bike and John offered to be her driver for the day. With their map in hand, we set off for a day of fun. We are traveling down Rt.66 to the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks.  We are riding thru downtown Chandler, and Jennifer ask if we want to stop for breakfast.  Well, you know what the answer to that one is.  We always want to eat.  Got some good home cookin in our bellies, and noticed they have a list of pies that they make on the board.  Jennifer says we need to come back for a pie run.  Sounds like a plan to me.  The wind is blowing its usual 20-30 mph, and the sun is out, and it really is a great day to be on the bike.  Nice ride and there was lots of scenery to look at.  You know if you are on the back of the bike, we like new scenery!  We get to the great town of Jenks about 11:30 I think.  Finding the aquarium was a bit interesting.  You could see it, but the signage to get there wasn't very good.  We took the scenic route and make a u-turn and try again.  Finally see the sign telling us which way to turn to get to the aquarium.  We get our tickets, and off we go to look at some "fish"....
The Aquarium was very nice.  The hands on exhibits were very interesting. You could pet a starfish, or feed a turtle, or touch a crab... They have a very nice set up.  Lots of interesting fish.  The sharks were wonderful.  Loved the tunnel to get up close and

personal with them.  As we leave we have to take a photo op and get our pics on the alligator.  Fun time, and so glad I can say I have seen it.

While in Tulsa we had to make a couple of stops at the Harley Shops.  Fueled up and Chuck is leading us to Myers Duran HD.  Find a few "treasures" there, and walk out with a new shirt, and Chuck bought some new sunglasses.  I think Carolyn & Mark, and Jennifer & Steve found something too.    Now on to Rt. 66 HD.  The roads are still a mess in Tulsa, and they are working on them today.  With the wind now blowing at quite a clip, the dirt is really flying.  Our trip to Rt. 66 was a good one too.  Well, at least for some of us.  Jennifer and I got us a t-shirt.  It is close to 3pm now, so we think it is time to head towards our dinner destination of Click's in Pawnee, OK.

The pack of Moles head out to find Pawnee, OK...but first we have to get out of Tulsa.  Find that a bit trying to say the least.  Steve & Jennifer are leading and we miss an exit to go towards Pawnee.  I try to tell them over the cb, and to say the least, our cb's SUCK!!!  No one can hear me. It is so crazy.  Never had this problem with Pearl.  Of course, Harley tells us, ours is fine, but don't understand why we can't communicate with the other bikes. Very agravating to say the least.  One thing about T town, it is layed out in a circle, so you know you will eventually come back to the point again.  Sure enough we found another exit to head north.  We are challenged again when we take 11E instead of 11W. Since our radios won't work, Chuck rides up to Steve to let him know we are going the wrong direction.  We turn around again, and off we go, and this time without a hitch.  I know that Steve was just showing us around Tulsa, but I was starting to get hungry...LOL.        You know this is the stuff that makes the rides we do fun.  Going north was great...too bad it didn't last longer.  We turn west and oh my gosh, the wind is terrible.  I have to say that as we rode thru Skiatook, I have never seen so many churches in one town.  If there was an empty building, it was a church.  Man, those people must really be needing to be saved alot...We reach Homony, and turn back towards the south.  Pit stop was made in Cleveland, OK.  As we pull out we notice a really large fire off to the east.  Man, with the wind blowing like this, that is not a good sign.

We get to Pawnee about 5pm.  We walk in to Click's and the hostess ask if we had a reservation....well, NO....LOL...we had no idea what time we would get there, and had not idea we needed one.  Heck, we are in Pawnee America.  Have to say the hostess needed to work on her people skills, as she had none.  She didn't smile...told us she didn't have a table to seat 8, and we would have to split up.  Well, alrighty then.  So she puts us at these two tables right in the front of the restaurant.  Each table will seat 6, so we are all friends, and see no problem with scrunching in and all sitting together.  Well, our hostess with the mostess wasn't really happy about that.  Oh well, she will just have to deal with it.  Very nice waiter took care of us.  As we are figuring out what to eat, I spy the pies in the frig.... MMMM....looks like another place for a pie run.  But if "smiley" is going to be there, we need to make a reservation.  The salad bar was awesome, and the food was very good too.  But the pie was still looming over us.  Had to have a piece of that pie.  Chuck says the pies look like something we just was at the aquarium.  I think he is right.  Jennifer and Steve shared a piece of chocolate, and said it was great.  Chuck and I shared a coconut cream.  It was good, but not as good as the one we had last week at the bat cave.  The crust was better, but the filling wasn't.  (Oh my, we are now becoming pie critics)   As we leave, the hostess actually smiled at me, and said to come back....Really!!!! she wants us to come back.  I can't believe it.

Time to start homeward bound.  We travel back to 18 and take it to 33.  We make our final gas stop and say our goodbyes at the corner of 33 & 51.  We had a great time today, and had a great leader.  As we pull out of the station, we have a red, white, blue bike, followed by root beer.  Great day with some awesome friends.  Doesn't get much better than this.  Mileage 381 to our house.