Bright and early wake up today at 5 am for today’s long ride…longest of the trip on paper. Ate a quick breakfast outside the hotel and hit the road.Ride wasn’t so bad for the most part…passed a lot of oil refining and drilling equipment which I didn’t expect, but I guess we’re actually pretty close to Texas, more familiar oil country. Enjoyed some more wide shoulders and silly conversation.
Plan was to have lunch in a small town along the way sponsored by Van Buchannon and Mr. Argetsinger…who have been treating our team like kings. Just before the town though we hit
some road construction, and had to rack past the most devilish machine I have ever seen: some sort of “road recycler” that chews up the asphalt, melts it with flames shootin out of the bottom, then smooths out fresh pavement…glad we didn’t try and bike past it. Ended up racking the extra 15 miles or so into lunch because I was in the back group for time considerations…the guys in front were able to push it at a pretty extreme pace and make lunchtime with only a minute to spare.Lunch was awesome…burgers and pork tenderloin sandwiches at this great little restaurant called the Grand Central Hotel and Grill…had fun chattin with Van, his son Brad, his daughter and grandkids, and Mr. Argetsinger before getting back out on the road to finish the ride.
Before long we were pulling into Emporia…a pretty good sized town with a university in it. We lodged up at a local community center where “Dan’s Hands” were waiting to massage us. Got cleaned up and either got a massage from Dan or used the electric massage table that was also provided for us…good stuff.
Around 6 it was time for dinner, which was being provided right in our lodging by the Kiwanis club. Another Pot-Luck!! Definitely the best kind of dinner on the trip. I sat with an interesting chap named Chris…somewhat of a politico type who questioned everything: “so when you guys get to DC you’re gonna be lobbying for something right?? Like isn’t that what you guys do??” Ummm…no, Chris.After dinner a few of us went to do some laundry…which almost ended in disaster for me: turns out I accidentally left a chocolate “Gu” pack in my pocket which proceeded to coat my clothes in the drier….thankfully I had just enough time to run my clothes through the wash again and get the stuff out…then dry them for exactly 7 minutes before the place closed. The older ladies who ran the place were flashing some pretty intense glances over, cigarettes dangling from their mouths. Looked they had had a pretty rough go of it in good old Emporia…and I sure wasn’t making em happy by staying till close on a Friday night!
Laid my clothes out back at lodging to dry a little bit more…now its time to grab some shuteye!
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