Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Howdy Family and Friends! It’s day 3—yippee! For me (Jen) this day was spent on the road to South Dakota to visit two of my foreign exchange students that I have placed there! 127 miles one way! Luckily, Jalise slept the entire trip both going and coming home! Unfortunately, coming home, my body was ready for a nap too! Little sleep last night and an early morning don’t make for an awake Jen! But, we made it home—before the boys got home from church and enjoyed a quiet evening!

From Dave: This was day three of the ride. We started in Bingham and were en-route to Thedford. The conditions were much more favorable. It was 54 degrees this morning and this afternoon it reached around the mid 80's. Overall it was a pleasant ride with no major mishaps. I took the morning easy and was just seeing if my episode yesterday was just a fluke or was I really in trouble. We had some big hills and even bigger downhills which was nice. The downside is that there was a lot of road construction that wasn't there when we drove out. The decided to surface 7 miles of road and there was no smooth spot to ride. Either you road a shoulder that had a lot of loose rock and was rough or ride the new gravel and hope you didn't crash. What a choice.

After the construction I came up on a van that had pulled over with a flat tire. I asked him if he needed help and he responded, "I think that would be a good idea." He was a senior from Ord and it was fun to be able to help him. I needed something to put under the jack because it was sinking in the sand and he brought me his English Literature book. I opted not to use his book and used a mat from the back of his van. We stopped for lunch in Mullen and I made my mind up that I wanted to be the first rider in to Thedford and nobody was going beat me. When we left Mullen I kicked it into high gear! Side note: this is my nickname too, and I didn't look back. 10 miles in I stopped at the trailer, grabbed a snack, and took off. I was going fast enough that I beat the bus to the next stop. I arrived in Thedford 10 minutes before any other riders. I achieved my goal of leading an entire section and it felt great. At the end of the day I road 84 miles and averaged 17.8 miles an hour. Thanks for all your prayers. Tomorrow we have a short day and we ride 67 miles to Broken Bow and I get to sleep in a real bed at my inlaws home instead of a motel. Wahoo!!!



From our speedy (both driving and riding) picture window to yours, have a great night!

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