So today I drove. And how lucky did I get!

People said today was by far the hardest day of the ride. It was 110 miles through windy, smelly, hot, rural Kansas. There was essentially a cross or head wind the whole time. I almost got blown off the road driving the trailer so I can't even imagine what the riders must have felt like.

I woke up half an hour earlier than everybody else. Geeta and I prepared breakfast by simply pulling all the food out of the trailer and dumping it on the kitchen counter. Waking the people up was pretty easy. I just shouted what time it was and everybody groaned...

We would just drive 20 miles, set up the table, put out all the food and wait for the team to arrive. After they were all gone we'd pack it up and do it all over again. It was really boring. As I said the ride was hard so it was kind of embarrassing to not be riding. I felt like I was cheating. The first thing Trent did when he saw me in Syracuse was create an obscene gesture with his hand.... In jest of course. I wish I had ridden that day so I could explain how awful it was but I just don't think I can do it justice.

Geeta and I arranged where we were going to stay - camping in an RV park. We got a little worried about the weather as the first riders came into town. We had arranged to shower and swim at the public pool

As the last riders rolled into Syracuse a huge lightning storm came out of nowhere. It was 100 degrees and sunny at 3, but by 3:30 the skies turned black. We rested in The Dawg Den, a burger joint, who donated a meal to every rider. Vera, the RV park owner and our hero and savior arranged for us to sleep in the high school gym. I'm pretty sure I've never met anyone as nice as Vera. She saved the day - and what a day to save.We had arranged to shower and swim at the public pool but because of the lightning storm they closed early. We returned to the RV park and showered using a hose...in the middle of a lightning storm.

We moved to the non-air conditioned gym and promptly started the air circulating air from the outside with huge sports fans. I cooked some spaghetti for dinner. I may have burned the bottom but no one could tell...

It was a hard day for the others...but pretty relaxing for me...