June 18, 2007

June 18, 2007

Getting to Know Tulsa

Without transportation, fixing our tires would prove to be difficult. Ordering parts from one store and getting them installed in another, with no vehicle of our own, wasn’t easy. We made dozens of calls on dying cell phones looking for taxis and buses. Our longest trip was to Bixby, a neighboring city to pick up the tubes. Luckily we got a free ride from Perry Sebring, the son of my old neighbor back on 25th street. He lives around here now, and was kind enough to give us a ride to the shop, and some advice about the city.
From there it was jumping from bus to taxi, taxi to bus. Carrying two heavy tires over our shoulders wherever we went Luke and I got a lot of looks. We told the shortened story of our trip so far to a dozen people sitting around us on the bus, and in each shop we stopped in. This trip has involved more than just us West Michiganders. People from all across the country have offered help and advice whenever we need it. We’ve been pretty lucky with the people we meet.
The weather seems to foreshadow the events of our trip. Luke and I were walking back from our first ever Taco Bueno when it started to rain again. Then came the call that would eventually put us in Tulsa for another night. It was Ian; he said the other tires were leaking too. The rest of the tubes had to be replaced in each of our rear, dual tires. To order another set of tubes, we would need to wait another night.
“All we’ve got is time and food,” has become a popular saying among the crew members. These past couple days have showed us how right we actually are in saying it. Tired and bored, we snack inside Helen not because we’re hungry, but because we’re bored. We take occasional trips inside the Wal-Mart to browse and pass time. We never go in alone though; the prices are too low for any one man to handle by himself. We use the buddy system to stop each other from buying things we just don’t need. It’s tempting to buy things with prices so low. We’re doing the best we can to keep purchases to a minimum.
We were mistaken for homeless people today. A man biked over to tell us about a church down the road that could help us out. He looked homeless himself, with all of his things slung over his back. We could have gotten free food and showers if we posed as homeless boys, but we decided that would be a terrible idea. The showers were tempting though.
Not a lot going on in Tulsa. We really want to get out of here. Tomorrow should be the last day here, should be. The odometer is stuck at 78066.7 miles. We hope to add about 200 more tomorrow.

Winnebago guys, from the desk of Aaron Tubergen
Tulsa, Oklahoma
1039 miles, yah 3rd night in a row