On this blog I post a lot of really pretty pictures of things - sites and sights that I visit. Sometimes I post pictures of people; myself, the team, certain folks that get caught in a shot. It may make it appear that all we do is surf around the country on bikes on a pleasure cruise. But today was one of the “other” kind of days. A lot of this trip is a struggle, and some of it is really mundane. If you can’t find fun in the little moments; the camp showers, the rain, the van, putting out the signs and picking them up; then you won’t enjoy these trips. But I hardly ever take pictures of those parts. So today, I drove the rest stop van and it was a challenging day. The weather started out very bad; rainy and cold, a bad combination for cyclists. By the first rest stop it became clear that people were not enjoying themselves, and several of them started to “bail out”. A couple hadn’t even started the day and more started dropping like flies. Out of 19 cyclists, only about 9 or 10 made it to camp on their bikes.

But that’s not to say it was a bad day. Everyone had a good day and there’s nothing but smiles. The warmth of a church or a van feels so much warmer when you’re cold first.

On a personal level, one of the other route leaders Elle got in the van at rest stop 2 and she asked if I wanted to ride so I rode from RS2 to RS3 just so I could say that I was in Rhode Island. Which I was, for about 6 miles. I rode some with Teri again today and then I had a great conversation with Elle in the van on the way to camp.