Day 49 (7/20): Union, MO; 80 Miles

Woke up feelin preeeetty good this morning…which was good cuz today’s ride was a doozy. During circle up this morning Sollner decided to make Shek (our lifesize stormtrooper cutout that we had picked up in Wichita; named after our beloved Push intern Scott Shek) an official team member with a t-shirt presentation and all…pretty hilarious.

Hopped up in the front group with Geren, Small, and Pops and started cruising…hittin some major steep hills right off the bat. Poor Chad dropped his chain up one of the steepest ones and fell over when trying to start up again…though after the small break waiting for him my legs started feelin great. But man what a tough day: tons of steep hills, SUPER crappy road conditions in a lot of places, and a nice little headwind to top it off. Our one saving grace was overcast skies so the heat wasn’t bad. Funny highlight of the ride was trying to chase down some wild chickens at one of Farley’s stops…used bait to lure them and everything but those suckers were too fast.

After what seemed like forever we finally pulled into lodging at the local high school in Union (nice little town; population around 7700). We always complain about cold showers on this trip but these ones were freaking HOT!! You can definitely have too much of a good thing, that water must have been like 100 degrees. The locker was a bit confusing as it had both a urinal and what we’ll call a “feminine napkin” dispenser…hmmmm. After getting cleaned up we had pizza and salad provided by a local shop called Imo’s….delicious.

Used the downtime before dinner for a much needed nap. Around 6 we headed over to a local park pavilion where the rotary club provided the team with roast beef sandwiches and hot dogs. Sat with Pam and Steve, who ran the local park services and were super excited to tell us all about Union’s parks…nice folks. Special treat was a live band (it’s concert night in Union!) so we enjoyed the smooth sounds of “Fanfare” who covered great songs like “Under the Boardwalk.” Jay Holley even bought the CD!

Been catchin up with old friends on the phone for most of the evening now…hard to believe I’ve been away for almost 50 days now! Heading to sleep soon…gotta rest up for all the craziness to come in St. Louis tomorrow….finally going get to rock out with Andy B. and the BAM boys!