Hello everyone,

Yesterday I posted about not feeling well. I think that I felt about 30%  yesterday evening but by morning I was up to 50%. I had serious doubts about riding the full 85 miles but wasn’t going to pack it in without giving it a go. A lot of the folks knew that i wasn’t feeling so hot and gave me encouragement, hugs offers of pulling me along (drafting). I really don’t like to draft but was thankful for the offers.

I actually began to feel better as we pedaled along. I had dropped back to last but by the first SAG at mile 29 had caught up with quite a few folks. The scenery was pretty cool with acres upon acres go windmills, fields and large silos. A nice tailwind didn’t hurt matters either. I didn’t linger too long in the SAG and took off on the next leg of the journey. As we progressed, I started to feel better and stronger. I pulled into the second SAG and most of the riders were behind me.

I stayed a lot longer in the second SAG and sampled quite a bit of the delicious wraps that Carol had prepared. She is such a great lady and good friend. One of those people who just makes everyone around her feel better and she seems to know when you are down and gives an extra nod of encouragement. Most of the riders had agethered at the second SAG, by the time I left with Howard, Lou, Steve and Ted. I wasn’t sure if I felt up to keeping up with them but they slacked off their earlier pace. I had quite a surprise when Mary caught us from behind. She must have been hauling pretty good to catch us . It is a sign that she is recovering from her fall. Very nice ti see her riding strong.

In the little town of Learned, we stopped for coffee and were joined by Richard and Chris. We stayed quite awhile and had some good discussions with some clients and the workers there. One lady told us about the bad storm they had a few days earlier and how she attempted to rescue a cyclist who was caught out in a terrible electrical storm.

WE then rode on to Pawnee Rock and visited the little park there. In the great plains of Kansas stands this huge rock formation from which the Indians used to hunt buffalo and later on wagon trains. WE took a some photos, climbed the tower and then headed on out final leg to the hotel in Great Bend. It was an 85 mile day but seemed shorter as we had a tailwind for most of i. The weather has been great but was a little cool when we started.

Not sure if I had a bad taco, was dehydrated or caught a mild bug, but it was remarkable how lousy I felt for a few days and then fell quite a bit better at the end of day 2. At Route Wrap, Kevin and I had purchased some American flags for the riders to attach to their CrossRoads flags on our bikes. Seems that most of the riders were quite pleased / surprised. Howard (who is from the UK) and I have been riding with flags and now the whole group will have them for Memorial Day.

This was sent by Carol to the entire group and I thought that i would pass it along: “Memorial Day weekend means many things to different people, most of them have to do with kicking off Summer and spending some quality time with friends and family. Sometimes it is easy to forget the true meaning of Memorial Day and that it is a time remember and celebrate all the courageous Americans who have died serving our great country.”

Thanks for reading

~ Chuck