Jackson, CA – 50 Miles

June 15, 2010

Today was a great ride. I volunteered along with a guy from Iowa State to“sweep”. Every day two riders have this job, which is to stay behind everyone, and push the slower guys to keep up the pace. A lot of guys don’t think it’s that great of a job, but I had a great day, and really enjoyed keeping the energy up at the back of the line.

After the ride, we rode straight into a friendship visit, where we got to do a victory lap to a crowd of cheering fans. It was great because a lot of clients were there, and were really happy to see us come in. Dinner was paid for by the local Arc, and we spent the meal interacting with our new friends. Afterwards, we saw just how big of fans they really were, as many of them bought T-shirts from us, and had the team sign them.

I spent the afternoon helping my new friend Kelly collect signatures from all of the guys. After the visit, we had about an hour of free time, which I used up on a well needed nap, getting up just in time to head out to dinner with the local Lions club. Two of the guys told us about the Lions club, and a few of its members in a stand up comedy sort of way. We all had a good time getting to know this group, and were grateful for the big pasta dinner they gave us. Tomorrow is supposed to be the hardest day of the trip, so we’re going to need all of the energy we can get.