By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: September 4, 2012

reddirtreporter@gmail.com

JONES, Okla. – The heat was rising on this Labor Day morning as Steve Godfrey pedaled into this small, central Oklahoma town.

For a holiday – and a very hot one at that – it was surprisingly busy where East Britton Road intersects with North Hiwassee Road. Folks were filling up with gas at the gas station or shopping at the nearby discount store.

And Steve Godfrey? He was already sweating in his bright red Red Dirt Report T-shirt and hat and looking a little tired. But he also had that glint of determination in his eye. This pedal-powered trip – both a personal journey and a good cause – was something he had been wanting to do for close to 15 years.

It is here that I should note that I have known Steve for over a decade. Back in the early 2000’s I was a newspaper reporter in Alexandria, Louisiana and worked alongside Steve’s father Andrew Godfrey. He and I were friends and he had mentioned his son more than once.

At that time, Steve Godfrey was living in New Orleans and was politically active and largely eschewed automobiles. Steve was a hardcore bicycle guy in a city where walking, bicycling or taking public transportation was far more common than in car-and-truck-centric locales like Houston or even the small city of Alexandria where I lived in those days.

And at that time I was active in Green Party politics. I formally met Steve through Green Party meetings in New Orleans and while down there visiting friends I would meet up with him. His bike, of course, never far away. It was like a part of him.

After moving from Alexandria to Lawton, Oklahoma and ultimately to Norman and Oklahoma City, your Red Dirt Reporter neglected to stay in close touch. But with an easygoing, friendly guy like Steve Godfrey, you just picked up where you left off, no matter how much time had passed.

In those years, Steve was in Alexandria-Pineville, La., Shreveport and Austin, Texas (and possibly some other locations). He delivered fliers for restaurants or pizza places. He had been driven out of New Orleans for a bit after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. But he would eventually return and recently had been working as a pedicab in the Crescent City – until the boys from Boston came in for the fall season and took all the good jobs.

Time to move on, thought Steve. Time to go on that six-state, 5,000-mile trip through the middle of the country, from September through December. He kept a log of his trip, along with photos at his special Facebook page “Bike Tour de Life: 5000 Miles thru OK/KA/MO/KY/TN/AR, Sep-Dec. 2012.” Steve, the active and adventurous man that he is, is also releasing a book – “Le Book de la Bike Tour de Life” sold for $25 each with a protion going to Livestrong at progressivepromotions@gmail.com.

Steve had gone on a similar 5,000-mile journey through his homestate of Louisiana and into Texas. He noted that Texans were a bit friendlier and that he had some great experiences.

He didn’t do as many media interviews as he would have liked, but in March 2012, while in Graham, Texas, The Graham Leader did interview Steve about his journey and his desire to see an end to cancer – the disease that took the life of his friend and a former girlfriend. Both died before they reached the age of 40.

He hopes to share his story with more media folks on this fall bike tour.

This time he would start in Oklahoma City, winding his way through the Sooner State before going to Kansas, and then on to Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and finishing up before Christmas in Arkansas.

It was called “The Bike Tour de Life.” Having lost a childhood friend to cancer and having gotten to know the Lance Armstrong “Livestrong Foundation” folks while in Austin, Steve arranged to raise money during his tour – with 15 percent of all gross revenues the tour receives going to Livestrong.

And so on Sept. 2, 2012, Steve arrived in Oklahoma City in a rental car, his well-worn bike (complete with an iconic New Orleans “Eracism” bumper sticker) and Burley bike trailer crammed in it somehow.

Using CouchSurfing.com, Steve was able to arrange “couches” to sleep on along the way. He was staying off of 23^rd Street here in Oklahoma City and while we were together we drove around downtown Oklahoma City and checked out the RedHawks baseball stadium and the Mickey Mantle statue (his dad Andrew is a big baseball enthusiast). I also took him by the psychedelic shack better known as “The Womb” and operated by Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips.

It was good to catch up with Steve (a hacky sack expert, I learned) after not having seen him for so many years. At 40 years old he still had a youthful air, not really looking as if he had aged at all in the six or seven years since I had last seen him.

He seemed eager to get started on his trip, so the next morning, Monday, September 3^rd, I met up with him at 36^th and Classen here in Oklahoma City. He wasn’t entirely sure about the best way to get to Route 66 (he had lodging lined up in Stroud that night – the folks who own the Rock Café there on Route 66) and so I did my best to drive along and take him on the streets heading north and east.

Along the way he photographed the Oklahoma State Capitol but he mostly kept his head down and focused on pedaling. We stopped a few places and turned around once or twice.

At one point, as we got into the countryside in eastern Oklahoma County, he smiled and said, “I just saw my first cow.” And there would be plenty more cows, horses and livestock to see on this stretch, leading along East Britton Road to Jones.

And because I had other things to attend to, I told him that Hiwassee Road here in Jones would envetually take him to Route 66 and eastward to Stroud and beyond.

Steve did tell me that since about 1997 or so he had dreamed of riding his bike on historic Route 66. Now he was doing it, raising money and cancer awareness and taking pictures along the way.

While in Oklahoma this month, Steve will be stopping in: Tulsa, Muskogee, Okemah, McAlester, Durant, Ardmore, Duncan, Lawton, Chickasha, Norman, Anadarko, Clinton, Elk City, Woodward, Alva, Enid and Ponca City before heading north into Kansas in late September. When Steve finishes his tour of Oklahoma on Sept. 22^nd, he will have traveled over 1,000 miles on his trusty bicycle. 

If you see him somewhere out there on the backroads, be sure to wave or say “hello.”

Copyright 2012 Red Dirt Report