Day 25 (6/26): Casper, WY; Day Off

Team Photos

Naturally waking up without an alarm – and knowing you can go right back asleep – is definitely one of the best feelings in the world. Even though my body is wired for 5:30 am wake-ups lately I was able to doze till about 9:00 or so…got up feelin great. Lazed around our lodging at the high school for a bit, even grabbed a morning shower, before heading out around 10:30 for some delicious cereal and a bagel graciously set out by Ezra. Afterwards took a quick trip to walmart for some incidentals and necessary candy. Also hit up the bike shop for some more tubes (darn those flats), one of the super high tech polar waterbottles to keep the agua warm in the heat, and sunglasses (both Small and I lost ours, and I loved those freakin glasses!) New shades were pretty cheap though and aren’t half bad.

Sollner was running one-on-ones with all the guys today to get feedback on how the trip was going, which I think proved beneficial. Just a quick 5-10 minuter…all in all I think everything is running smoothly; we’ve got one heck of a team. While those were finishing up I went outside with Todd to do a little bike cleaning/maintenance.

At 3:00 we had our third safety committee meeting – biggest concern was how to mix up pacelines of guys with different strengths on the bike…the goal is to have the whole team riding with each other, mixing it up every day…but it’s tougher than it sounds. The whole team meeting was at 3:30 and Sollner went over the next week or so…finally going to hit Colorado!! (most of the guys are pretty over Wyoming by now). We actually have 5 guys from Colorado…who have dubbed it the “party state” of the trip…should be a good time: two college towns, Denver, short rides throughout…awesome.

Around 5 we packed into the vans for dinner and a friendship visit at a local park with the folks of Arc of Natrona County. Got there and immediately had a sweet softball game going with a bunch of kids. Enjoyed some burgers with Gracie and Rachel…two young adoptive sisters, and their parents…who had taken 5 children in total…all extremely nice. Perfect day to be out and getting to be goofy with little kids is always a treat.

Most everyone is hittin the hay early tonight. Gonna be a looong ride tomorrow…