Here’s what a typical day on the bike looks like:

Wake up time is determined by the support team for that day. We typically wake up to a support team member’s Ipod, the lights turning on, or if we’re lucky we get to wake up to a group of high school boys listening to rap and lifting weights (thank you Salida High School). I will admit that I am never the first one up, and unless I am on support I am never awake before we have to be. We wake up one hour before we “plan” to head out for the day, which usually ends up being around 7am.  We have a rule that you can’t eat breakfast until your sleeping bag, mats, and bags are packed and loaded in the trailer. Without this rule I would surely never be ready to leave when we’re supposed to. Typically after 45 minutes I have gotten dressed, eaten breakfast, and have begun putting air in my tires and checking over my bike.  When it’s time to leave, the support team for the day gives us an overview of the route, mileage, when the rest stops will be, etc. I usually listen closely for when the first rest stop will be, and our final destination for the day (always a good idea to know this in case you get lost).

The next 4-10 hours are spent on the bike. If we aren’t sitting on the bike between our start and end locations, we are eating. Bars, bars, and more bars are always available. I’ve had more power bars during this trip than I have in my entire life.

          

I love riding with people, so more times than not you’ll find me riding with a group of people (usually the guys). They keep me pretty entertained throughout the rides. And just as I forget that I’m a minority in the group…

 Someone will pull off the side of the road to pee. Not fair. Especially frustrating when I’ve been holding it since the last rest stop because there is absolutely no where to squat in the miles upon miles of open fields in Kansas. I also don’t join in on their attempts at racing to every county, city, and state sign. Maybe I’ll join in on an unsuspecting rider one of these days

      

This is my view during a day’s ride. Not bad right? Haha. At this point in the trip I can easily distinguish each and every rider by their backside. Not a huge surprise, considering the amount of time we spend on the bike. So what do we do while we’re riding other than staring at each other’s backsides? We enjoy the scenery, share stories, play games, listen to music, and simply enjoy each other’s company. One game we’ve been playing here in Kansas and Missouri is that if we see a group of cows someone yells “hey cow” and counts how many cows turned their heads. Some people choose to Moo (Kel). We are easily amused. These forms of entertainment are usually successful at keeping my mind off my legs and saddle sores- always a plus.

We are now in Jefferson City, Missouri. We are staying in a Church right down the street from the Capitol. We actually had to call today’s ride at our lunch stop (after about 65 miles) because it started to storm. I think we all had enough of the rolling hills. I’m on support tomorrow so I should probably make sure we’re all set for lunch, water jugs are filled, etc etc. This is a picture of us loading the bikes as the storm was rolling in.

                        

It’s about time for a day off the bike.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 8:01 pm by jen and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.