Hi All,
I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. Even though I actually only spend six hours a day in the saddle, Dan and I do 12 hour riding shifts together in his Suburban, and then we eat, shower, sleep and drive ourselves forward to the next exchange with Bill Edmonds and Bill Hardy. There is so little extra time to write or call home, or do much of anything else -- it's all sort of blurring into a mad dash across the country. I think in the last post we were heading into Kansas but we are now in Illinois waiting for the Bills to arrive.
I have mixed emotions about how fast this team is riding and how well we are making our way to Annapolis. I know that this is a race and we want to ride as fast as possible, but the days that we're spending together, the time with my brother and the team, are what we've been training, planning and dreaming about for the past couple years and all too soon, it will be over.
Our night ride through Kansas was incredible. I think Dan and I averaged in excess of 20 mph for 240 miles or so that evening. It's a little eerie out there in complete darkness (there has been virtually no moon this week) with thunderstorms to our left and right and some stars above us. Riding through Kansas you begin to notice the smell of the crops growing and being harvested, the feed lots, and strange engines idling away in the darkness - oil wells or water pumps, I guess. We rode into the daylight and into the heat of which the Bills got the brunt. We exchanged at the halfway point in Pratt, Kan., just after Greensburg, where they are still rebuilding the town from the tornado that wiped it off the map a couple of years ago. I got to watch a crop duster do his work for about five miles. Now that's the way to drive a tractor - whew! I have always loved how they fly so low and just lift up enough to make the turns and head back down the fields distributing their loads. As I've gotten older, I'm less excited about all the chemicals they drop and the good things that are eliminated with the bad. Still, it was exciting to watch.
Last night we stayed in Fort Scott, Kan., near the Missouri border. Dan and I took over around 11:00 p.m. local time and rode to Jefferson City, Mo. today. They have no shortage of turtles in Missouri. I think I saw a hundred turtles in various pieces on the side of the road today, along with some lizards, frogs, snakes and other creatures I couldn't identify. The farmers are harvesting and bailing hay. I loved the smells of the woods, the lakes, the farms... except for the smell of those rotting turtles it was all very pleasant. We came past the Lake of the Ozarks too, or perhaps, Lakes of the Ozarks, I'm not sure which, but it definitely looked like a place I'd like to return.
In today's batch of pictures is a shot of my brother, Dan, as he came by the support vehicle this morning at near 30 mph. He's like superman. He just keeps getting faster and faster, and he does it with such fluid grace. We're so different, he and I. He is precise and thorough about all that he does - just the right mix of training, stretches, foods, equipment, clothing, you name it. He's got a picture of my daughter, Arianna, taped to his handlebars and he makes sure that her stuffed monkey rides in our support vehicle with us. I've been blessed beyond measure with my family, but especially my brother.
We ride on towards Annapolis, all looking forward to seeing our families, enjoying some meals without dwelling on the carb/protein balance, and resting tired muscles and butts. . . but at the same time I'm very sad, even now, that by then we'll be done with this adventure. Our little band of Angels will go their separate ways again. Although I'm sure we'll assemble again another day (more than likely for the same mission :)), we will never be able to recreate the magic of this week. I wonder if Jeff Gordon ever has the luxury of looking around the stadiums packed with people and fully appreciate his NASCAR support crew waiting to help him get to the finish line. I trust that he does, but it's probably a little harder at ten times our speed.
