Day 44 (7/15): Topeka, KS; 80 Miles

So these 5 am wake-ups are kickin our butt…one is more than enough. Sollner, Farley, and Rodney were indeed up at 4 though as penance for yesterday morning’s snafoo…they had all gone out for some mickey d’s breakfast. This morning was definitely a scramble as I packed up my clothes that were still delightfully damp (now they’ll be clumped in a bag in a hot car all day…wooo!). We rolled out of the community center, grabbed some crew chief breakfast, and got ready to hit the road. I finished off my 5-day manifesto on Asperger’s Syndrome for the disability of the day (a mental disorder some consider as a high functioning form of autism…features difficulty with social interaction despite an otherwise higher than average IQ) with the cool fact that there is speculation that some of our greatest minds (Einstein, Newton, Jefferson) might have had the disability.

Decided to ride up front with the “’Flaggits” (so named for their desire to ride so fast that they often get red-flagged (stopped) up at the front crew stop because everyone else is too far behind). Donde, Geren, Pops, and I zipped out of Emporia treated to a Kansas sunrise (possibly the only cool part of getting up at 5). Good riding today…lotsa of rolling hills (Kansas is not flat!) but we were movin at a fast pace. The eastern side of Kansas (which has apparently had record rainfall this year) is very lush and green offering a pretty view. Before long we were pullin into Topeka and staging up at a local gas station as the rest of the guys came in. Got to meet Jon Leffler (crew guy from last year’s team) and his girlfriend McKayla…both extremely nice.

When everyone got in we double pace lined it up and arrived at TARC, an organization that helps people with disabilities find work as well as providing services like training and counseling. A big group of folks was outside to offer us a warm greeting as we executed our smoothest arrival yet. We’re actually lodged up at TARC (Dawn and her crew take great care of the team in Topeka)…but there’s no showers so we rolled over to the local YMCA to get cleaned up…always an experience with 24 of us in a locker room all at one time.

Back at TARC we all got to enjoy another great pot luck meal. I chatted it up with Ruth and Mike for the most part….Ruth worked over at another facility of TARC’s in the cafeteria, where she had to constantly fight the temptation to eat junk food. Mike was one of the supervisors and joked about settin up some fun stuff for the team to do next year.

After lunch a few of us did a quick walmart run, then had some downtime before dinner. Chad Snyder's dad Charlie actually took care of us here at TARC, bringing in some good eats.

With the rest of the evening free Leffler took a bunch of us out to a local watering hole...transportation was a bit cramped but all the more fun. Ezra and I had bloody mary's just cuz they were on special...those things really just aren't a late-night drink. Good times all around though...had to quietly tiptoe over sleeping bodies back at lodging and now its time for some sleep!