Day 21
Happy Mother's Day

DAILY REPORT: After yesterday's brutal winds and today's short mileage, we decided to sleep in this morning and not load until 9:00.  We were expecting unfavorable winds again, but the motel rooms wouldn't be ready until about 3 anyway so we might as well have another cup of coffee and depart a little later.  I tried to convince everyone that since it was Mother's Day, they should let Barbara sleep in...it seemed to work.

As I sat in the breakfast room, I noticed a couple folks having the jitters to get on the road, but we held them back to give them the AAA personality check.  I suggested putting their pointer finger and thumb together and sit cross legged and go mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.  It really wasn't that bad though as most just lounged around enjoying the relaxed morning.  We'd be on the road quickly enough...soon it was 9:00 and poof...everyone was gone.

Today was definitely another day of cooperation.  For the most part of the day there were large pace lines drilling into the wind sharing the work to get to town.  At one point, there were probably 20 in one group scooting down the road.  There were only about 5 who were riding solo...they are the ones who have my admiration.  It was hard work all day on a day that should have been relatively easy with low mileage and no climbing to speak of.

This day was a new route to a new location.  We usually stay in Champaign but there is a graduation going on this weekend so we couldn't get any rooms...hence Tuscola.  The plan was for me and Karen to ride off the front to check out the routing to make sure there were no problems or miscues.  I was in the van for the first half of the day when Shane dropped me off at the SAG stop.  I jumped out and Karen and I sped down the road with a little head start...again the first thing that crossed my mind was, "What was I thinking?"  We pulled out into a 12-15 MPH head wind and our route didn't change direction for the rest of the day...we were going east and the wind was blowing to the west.  

Actually I felt really good today for some reason...maybe it was the late start, but whatever it was, the winds didn't bother me after a little warm up.  Our goal was to stay off the front in order to mark the route and we were able to do that.  We were able to hold 18-19 MPH most of the afternoon with stops at every turn to mark the route all the way to the motel.  I think everyone enjoyed the route markings...hope they don't expect us to do that every day.

After maintenance, rap, and dinner; we had our famous t-shirt swap with Barbara as master of ceremonies.  The riders provide a t-shirt with a story and they play "dirty xmas" to swap or steal the t-shirt they want.  There were a couple interesting shirts as Jud brought one that had an aroused chainring that was interesting and there were several others that were fought over...good thing these folks get along or the fur may have been flying by game's end.  Just another fun thing we do while we are out here.

Speaking of being out here, it's hard to believe we've come this far in just a few short weeks.  Costa Mesa seems like a lifetime ago and we are starting to realize the ride is quickly coming to a close.  We've many more miles to ride, but we are less than two weeks from our destination.  I hope the riders don't focus on Amesbury just yet...there's still too much journey to enjoy before we get to the end. 

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