I have only been a part of this wonderful biking journey for a short time, yet I am amazed by the abundance of crazy adventures I have already encountered. Today we not only hung out in a car wash stall for one hour due to weather conditions but we also went shopping for groceries three times. On top of that we rode over 100 miles and I was chased by two crazy dogs. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Today was an exhausting yet rewarding day. We had to push through hot and windy conditions. The terrain was tough and the miles were long. I was only able to ride for the last fourth of the distance because I am still training and not in tip-top shape. I so admire the individuals in this community that are able to physically tackle a day such as this.

I was thankful for the opportunity to experience a day in the life of a support vehicle member. I had chatted with different people in the community and was informed that a challenge the group is confronted with is making strong connections between the bikers and the support vehicle team. My hope was that by experiencing both environments I would be able to relate to the people involved in each. Riding in the car was a sweet experience. We sang country songs with our boisterous voices, made sure all of the bikers were able to keep rolling and made up a game called, “Hit the stop sign with rocks.” In the midst of the creativeness I realized that the support vehicle team was vital to this community. They work exceptionally hard to serve the bikers. It became obvious to me that one of the commonalities between the bikers and the drivers is the energy that each put into a day.

After a long day of support vehicle journeys I was able to hop on my bike and ride the last 20 miles. I was ecstatic. Surprisingly, it is hard for me to ride the miles in a car rather than on a bike. Every time the support vehicle stopped I stretched out or went for walk in order to stay lose. I wanted to be ready to ride if the opportunity was available. I am much more in tune with my surroundings when I am peddling a bike rather that driving a car. I am able to engage all of my sense in the explorations of my surrounds when I am traveling by bike. With all of that said the biking was awesome.

We arrived at West Union Mennonite Church and scattered to take shower. Although I had already encountered many adventures throughout the day, showering was my favorite. I and three of my community friends decided to shower outside with a hose. Yeah, it sounds crazy when we could have used an actual shower, but this was much more exciting. We had water fights, got soap in our eyes, sang songs and laughed until our stomach’s hurt. It was a wonderful ending to my day.

Posted by Jess Roth

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 10th, 2006 at 2:15 am and is filed under Trip06. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.