“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore….” Woke up feelin pretty refreshed this morning…gotta love having your own bed. Jake and I had our usual sibling-style squabbles as we got ready which I of course won every time. After finally getting our bags packed up in the vans (sucha loooong walk through the school!) it was time for some breakfast.Oz and Jake, Two Kansas alums and Pi Alphas from North Team ’04 (quick shoutout to Moshier and Smitty) sponsored breakfast for us…rockin bagels and krispy kreme donuts. Pretty cool guys…Jake was nice enough to take care of some postal needs for me as well. We thanked them and Bob for letting us stay at the Kansas School for the Deaf and were on our way.
Had a couple of ride alongs today…Ted from Beta chapter at Presbyterian, a Pi Alpha who lived in the area and decided just yesterday to ride with the team, rode with us for the first 10 miles out of town…Dale, Ed, and Randy from the Kansas City cycling club also joined us for about the first 30. Got a sweet police escort out of town…really do wish we could have those the whole way!
The KC cycling club guys were pretty cool…Randy had a sweet recumbent (meaning you sit lying down) bike which looked comfy. They pointed out that the back roads we were on wouldn’t have a “Welcome to Missouri” sign so the best we could do was a “Stateline Road” picture…laaaame. Dang Missouri…already off to a bad start.
So apparently Missouri spends the least out of any state on its roads…which quickly became apparent as we rolled over many a nice crack and pothole next to the nonexistent shoulder. All things considered the ride was going pretty well though. Only problem was it seemed like time was flyin and we weren’t….by around 12:30 we had only gone 50 miles on what was supposed to be a 105 mile day (they rerouted us this year in hopes of finding better road conditions). Startin to worry when right around mile 65 we see our fearless PM Steve Sollner…he made the call to rack the team up because 1) there was a ton of construction up ahead; 2) we were way behind on time; and 3) the route in actuality turned out to be 130 miles…wooo! Good call brotha.
We ate lunch quickly there at the rack point under a nice pavilion…and even got to play on some swings nearby…weee :-)On the drive up to Sedalia I very quickly passed out…which made for a very quick ride. Our lodging is a local community center multipurpose room…we had to walk over to the pool next door to shower (though time was tight with dinner coming up we took a quick dip in the pool…it had a sweet slide and 1 meter diving boards! Kids were asking us if we were Lance Armstrong….I replied “of course”).
Dinner was provided by Josh Donde’s family (his mom grew up in the area) and they were finishin up grillin as we came in from the showers…and this is when we got to meet Hal…ohhhh Hal. See Hal is not a reporter…he is a pure and dedicated photojournalist. And man was he upset that we didn’t ride up on the bikes. Apparently his whole day was budgeted to get a pic of the team for tomorrow’s news in the wildly popular Sedalia Democrat. “If it seems like I’m perturbed…it’s because I am,” pretty much sums up my attempted convo with him as he lectured me then Rodney on the ethics and philosophy of journalism. Sollner wouldn’t have any of it and reminded old Hal that safety was our number one priority, which quieted him down a little. Ohhhh Hal.
Dinner rocked…bbq chicken and beans and cheesy potatoes and homemade pies…mmmm. After we had the rest of the night off…which was excellent because it’s Mr. Mike “Country” Algozine’s 21st birthday wooo!! A whole bunch of us went over to a local establishment called the End Zone to celebrate. Kind of a whole in the wall but perfect for our needs….had ourselves a nice little celebration and ole’ Country was feelin good. Highlight was the Carnevil machine in the back (best game ever…just ask my dad). After a fun night of shenanigans we walked it back to lodging and hit the hay.
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