Today was a new adventure for us, full of lots of hills, challenging headwinds at times, and our Longest Ride of the week. We met a lot of interesting people on our route today, we met people that were from close to home who knew our hometowns well and we met people from as far away as South Africa. It's hard to put into words the magnitude of this event, we all got separated today along the Route. At times we were one of many in a sea of bikes. I was telling everyone that it reminded me of the scene from Finding Nemo where they were trying to catch the East Australian current which was the underwater Expressway. If you get off the route for any reason it can be difficult to get back on, much communication is required when riding with this many cyclists. You hear terms like "on your left", "Rider on", "rumbles", "on your right", "car up", or "car back" shouted periodically to inform people of things going on . The amount of food served to us along the way goes on forever, things like biscuits and gravy, breakfast burritos, fruit, pickle juice, lime Aid, pork chops, ice cream, corn on the cob, and much much more is freely available to keep us going. At one point on my ride today a little girl was standing on a short platform holding Twizzlers out for Riders to grab out of her hand as we rode by. I grabbed some and it was the best tasting thing that I needed at that time, besides that it was the cutest thing too! Another little boy was passing out water as we rode through a town. The people here are very welcoming, sitting at the roadside waving at us or serving food. The host towns we are staying in put on a big show including concerts and other various entertainments and did I forget to say lots of food? Today was a long ride, one that tested our training efforts. Jeff rode the extra 30 miles to ride a century. Oh.......there is lots and lots of delicious pie served along the route too!..... It's late and I need to sleep.... Until tomorrow..... Beth
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