Today we finished our last few miles of Nebraska and crossed
into Iowa, which is the 6th state of our journey. We left Omaha
today at about 7 A.M. after a 5:30 wake up, breakfast and circle up. After a
list minute pace line change I was riding with Doug Meenan again, along with
Beau Samples from Miami of Ohio. With only a 55 mile ride ahead of us we
weren’t to worried about pace and having to be racked. At mile 25 the team was
red flagged and had to rack the bikes on the vans due to construction but
because we were the second pace line to make it to the spot we got through the
8 miles and back on the bikes pretty quickly. I have found the best way to pass
time while on the bike is to sing and talk. With about 20 miles left in the
ride, Doug asked me to tell him my life story and so I did. Before we knew it
we were arriving at our location and hadn’t even realized the 20 miles of
rolling hills we had gone over. The place we were staying at is down a 2 mile
long gravel road so we had to rack our bikes once again and get driven.
Around 12 we arrived at Creighton University Retreat Center
where we will be staying the night. Because we got here so early my pace line was some of the
first guys to shower and get settled in which is nice because everyone always
fights for the best spots to sleep. After going down the gravel road we had to
clean off our bikes so I sprayed it off a little bit and then went and took a power nap before our team event. At 2:30 every one was woken up and went to a
quarry about 15 miles away in Macedonia, Iowa. It was so refreshing to go
swimming when it is so hot and humid out. The team had a blast on the rope
swing and docks hanging out together. I also realized I am not very courageous when it comes to doing back flips off of docks like some of the other guys. From the quarry we went over to David
Adickes parent’s house. Dave is a two time Pi Alpha as well as a former Director
of Team Events. His parents have been hosting the north team for the past 14
years and they made us an absolutely delicious meal. The explained to us that
they look forward to us coming every year and I then realized how many guys
have been in the same spot as I was today in that back yard. Over 14 years
there was probably close to 400 team members doing the same thing I was. After
helping clean up we went back to lodging and were told we had the rest of the
night off to get ready for tomorrow.
Lodging was so hot that some people ended up sleeping outside because it was cooler. Once the majority of the team went outside the room cooled down substantially and I enjoyed a great night of sleep.
We head to Des Moines tomorrow, which will be close to a 100
mile ride. We have been warned about a lot of rolling hills and a head wind,
which is always enjoyable.
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