We racked the bikes and drove for about 25 minutes as we bypassed downtown Milwaukee. Today was a neat day because we had Mr. Dedeker who is Derek's dad riding with us. He hasn't rode a bike in close to 20 years but after about 65 miles he finished the day. I rode with Jason Milliken and Blake Neuman which was a pretty solid pace line. We started with a very quick pace and it was nice knocking out the miles. At mile 35 we crossed the state line into Illinois and we stopped to take a few pictures. Once we crossed into Illinois the roads went down the drain. The 3 mile stretch following the border was hands down the worst rode I have ever cycled on and it took a toll on my bike. When we got to mile 38 and off of the awful rode I looked down and saw one of my front wheel spokes was snapped. This was very frustrating because all though it is such a small thing on the bike you can't ride with a broken spoke. Luckily Josh and Dan had a crew stop right across the street so I was able to rack my bike on there van. I spent the rest of the ride hanging out with them and marking one of the final turns.
Once all the cyclist were in, we drove up to lodging which was one of the local YMCAs. It was a very nice facility and staying in YMCAs are nice because they have everything we need including showers, and work out equipment which a lot of guys like to take advantage of. We got showered up and had a few hours of free time before our visit so I had a crew member take me to a bike shop to get my bike repaired. Thankfully it was a cheap and easy fix and my bike was ready to get back on the road. After the bike shop a few of us made a trip to Steak and Shake to get milkshakes and kill some time before our friendship visit.
At 5:00 everyone circled up outside of YMCA and then went to the back of the building for our visit. We had a cookout and dance party with a group of kids with developmental disabilities and everyone had an absolute blast. With the grills going, DJ playing and kids running around having a good time, summer afternoons do not get much better. AFter close to two hours of lots of fun the friendship started winding down so we helped the YMCA staff clean up everything and called it a night. The team gathered in the room we were staying in too discuss the rest of the night and have our team meeting. Every week or so we come together to talk about safety issues from the week, crew member jobs, and give out our different team awards. This weeks meeting took about an hour and we were then free to do whatever for the rest of the night.
Our sponsor for the night as well as the director of the YMCA invited us over to her house for a bonfire later that night. Around 8:30 close to 15 of us went over to Ms. Barb's house to hang out with her kids and their friends. She has a daughter who is starting college this year so a lot of the people that came over were close to my age and the team really enjoyed hanging out with new people. When we are around the same people everyday we sometimes forget what it is like to communicate with other people our age so it was a nice change in pace. I stayed there for a little over an hour and then went back to lodging for the rest of the night.
Tomorrow we go to Chicago which I am very excited about. Ive never been to the Windy City so I am looking forward to a new adventure!
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