Day 32: Just in it for the Chicken

Course: Grand Island, NE to Lincoln, NE

Distance: 105 miles

Conditions: Strong headwind, bumpy roads

Terrain: Mostly flat, some rolling hills

Dance Moves: Seriously improving

At the morning circle up we were notified that we would be eating at Raising Cane’s for lunch. Boom. Instant motivation for everyone. Raising Cane’s really only sells chicken – really really good fried chicken. Everyone freaked out and decided that they’d actually try to finish the century on time. However, we had an extremely tight rack point due to the need to be at Cane’s by 12. That’s right, 105 miles by 12pm. Either we pedal insanely fast or we get lucky with some great tailwind. Neither was the case thanks to the heavy headwind.

I rode with Luke and Kevin. Luke is one of the best riders on the team, and Kevin is the aforementioned invincible man that has been struck by lightning and is riding with a broken pelvis and part of his lung removed. We were cruising for the first 40 miles, but then the headwind kicked in. It was insane. We were fighting to go 15 mph on a flat surface. It took us so long to get to the rack points that at mile 60 everyone on the team was red flagged, which means that they had to stop until further notice. Everyone got racked and brought 30 miles ahead so that we could get back on the bikes and ride into the city to go to Cane’s. Since the conditions were so poor, no one complained. Most of the time when there’s a bad headwind, it’s less of people being tired, but more people being irritable because we feel like we’re physically accomplishing nothing.

Upon arriving at Cane’s I got to see my girlfriend Kelli and her friends. It was awesome to finally have some visitors, and I really enjoyed their company. It’s nice to get a taste of the outside world every once in a while. You get so into the JOH groove of things that you forget what it’s like to be around your friends and home. After Cane’s I went to a shopping center with Kelli and her friends. We visited a super old ice cream shop and it served the tastiest ice cream that I’ve had over the whole trip.

Later on we went to a dinner with the Sertoma women’s organization. They help give funding to people with hearing disabilities. They brought us a huge home cooked meal with everything from fried chicken to pasta salad to home made sweet tea. They were all extremely nice and fun to talk to.

After the dinner we went to yet another dance. I don’t mean that to sound condescending either. We love going to the dances. The people there absolutely love seeing us so they go crazy on the dance floor. Kelli and her friends came to the friendship visit dance so they got to have a taste of what we get to do on a daily basis.  Everyone tore it up on the dance floor and made a lot of new friends. I danced a lot with a guy named Frankie. He picked up on how to do the Cupid Shuffle like it was nothing. He also had the most genuine smile I’ve seen on this trip. It was easy to make him laugh and I loved spending time with him – even if it wasn’t too long.

It was a jam-packed day today, but as always it paid off with some serious fun.

^^Frankie and I^^