Flat land? What is that?

Our legs are getting a little tiny break as the terrain is flattening out a bit, I think most people are VERY happy about that. However, flat land is pretty boring so we've been forced to get creative to find ways to pass the time/miles.

Saturday’s LESSON OF THE DAY: I am not immune to van rescues.

The ride to Oxford was going great, I was feeling good, there were some awesome rolling hills and I was finally feeling like I had a good pace going and was getting my technique down for the climbs…and then came the flat. At first I thought it was a typical flat which I could change on my own on the side of the road, but then I discovered that my lovely Gatorskin tire with only about 800 miles on it had a large chunk missing. Thus, I had to call the van for a rescue. My first (and hopefully last) time. It was only about 10 miles outside of our destination so it was a bit frustrating but at least I got to enjoy the majority of the day on my bike. And it did give me some time to catch up with my parents and my sister while I waited for my rescue. I got to hear Nora cooing in the background so I wasn’t all that upset J

After buying a new tire I spent some time walking around Oxford and enjoying some down time before dinner at a restaurant called Proud Larry’s. One of our rider’s cousins owns the place and was nice enough to set up a big room and buffet for us of salad, pasta and pizza. It was a ton of fun and of course dinner was full of a lot of laughing and a lot of eating to get ready for the next day’s ride.

Sunday’s LESSON OF THE DAY: Lighting is scary when you’re on a bike.

The started out like any other, we got up early and hopped on our bikes for the 75 mile ride into Clarksdale. However, about 5 miles into the ride a huge storm came rolling in and a group of 5 of us were forced to take shelter on some random person’s porch. The woman who lived there seemed a big surprised to have 5 bikers in all their gear shacking up on her porch but she was nice and understood that we needed to be out of the storm…so for an hour we watched the torrential downpour, lighting and thunder and then when we couldn’t take the boredom anymore we decided to hop on the saddle and go get wet. And we got VERY wet. The rain stopped about an hour later, but the damage was done and we were all soaked. That day seemed to take a really long time and at one point Sarah, Rachel and I had to stop on some deserted side road to lay down. We were laying in the middle of the street and couldn’t stop laughing, I think we were going a little crazy, when a woman in a car pulled up and asked us if we needed her to call a doctor. So apparently we looked as bad as we felt. But in the end we mustered up some energy and got to Clarksdale in a not too pathetic time frame.

Monday's LESSON OF THE DAY: Pools, tacos, and police escorts make for a very fun day.

Today we rode from Clarskdale, MS to Stuttgard, AR. Another state line! The day was pretty standard, lots of miles and lots of smiles in the morning. It took a turn for the interesting when around mile 75 we came upon a bridge that after talking to many, many locals we discovered was extremely dangerous and technically illegal for us to be on...oops. However there was only one way for us to get to Stuttgard so I called up the Clarendon, AR police department and explained our situation. A very nice officer met us at proceeded to escort us (with lights and everything!!) across the very long, very awesome bridge. It was awesome, we had the van in the front, the riders in the middle and the police at our backs. We held up traffic for a long time but everyone got the other side safe and sound, and all the semis even honked and waved at us when they finally got to pass. Yay for our first police escort!!

When we got to Stuttgard there was a fantastic youth group waiting for us that helped us quickly unload the trailer so we could go to a pool they had set up for us to use. We got there and I can't even tell you how amazing it felt to jump in after the 104 degree day. There was a huge water slide and everyone was pretty much giddy to be swimming and FINALLY be nice and cool. After the pool we went back to the church to enjoy an amazing taco bar and birthday cake for one of the rider's birthdays. We all went to bed that night very full and happy and ready for the next day to take us into Little Rock.

Oh- also we have started a MVP award for the day for the rider who had the worst/best/funniest day on the road. The winner gets to strap an awesome hat on the back of their Camelbak for the day that says "Git-R-Done". Today's winner was Sarah on account of the unbelievable heat rash she got on her legs. It looked incredibly painful.


Tuesday's LESSON OF THE DAY: Word games make the miles fly by.

I was sweep on this day along with my fellow rider Will. Sweep just means we are the last people the whole day so we can help out if anyone is having any issues. The first half was very, very boring but then at lunch we met up with two riders who here struggling with some pain issues. We decided to all stick together and ended up playing a word game called "Contact" for four hours. Yes, for four hours we did not stop playing this wonderful game. It brought us into Little Rock along a lovely bike path by the river and over the Big Dam Bridge and even made us not mind an error in the cue sheet that led us about 10 miles further than we planned to ride that day. It ended up being one of my best rides!

When we got into Little Rock we had no idea what was in store for our group. Winfield United Methodist Church pulled out all the stops for us. They were incredible and I will make a list of all the wonderful things they did for us because it would take too long to write:
1. They had a huge table of snacks and cold water waiting for us when we got in.
2. They had a big sign welcoming us all compelete with all our names on it.
3. They made an amazing BBQ dinner for us and even make vegetarian lasagna for the non-meat eaters of the group.
4. They bought a cake for one of our rider's birthdays and sang Happy Birthday for her (I still don't know how they found out it was her birthday).
5. They shuttled us to the showers.
6. They DID OUR LAUNDRY.
7. They made breakfast for us twice.
8. They haded out popsicles.
9. They helped shuttle people to downtown Little Rock for our day off. As a leader, not having to shuttle people and to actually have a day off was so amazing...
10. One of the church member's husband's is a doctor and took our one of our rider's stiches.
11. They took our riders out to run errands.
12. They read each and every one of our bios online and knew all about our whole group.

There was more, but I can't type anymore. Theses wonderful people were incredible. Next year's group MUST go there.


Wednesday's LESSON OF THE DAY: I love days off!

This day was a day off in Little Rock, and it was really nice to be able to sleep past 6:00am...I pretty much just relaxed the whole day. I cleaned my bike (who I have name Kelly Kapowski by the way), put on some sweet new camouflage handlebar tape, walked around downtown with some friends and shopped a bit, and then caught a AA baseball game at night. It was very refreshing and much needed! Our next one isn't until Colorado so it was nice to soak it up.


I'll do more pictures soon, big hugs from Arkansas!!