Spencer to Humboldt- 76.9 miles with 1433 ft of climb.

Pass through towns are Dickens, Gillett Grove, Webb, Marathon, Laurens, Havelock, Rolfe, Bradgate, and Rutland.

Conditions- Terrain- Flat to gently rolling hills—Temperatures- AM- nice!  PM- warm- 80’s—Winds- not fun at all strong SE winds.  Our direction all day was South and East.—Skies- Cloudy and partly cloudy

The “zipper symphony” began early this morning.  As I lay in my tent, trying to put in my contacts with a flashlight and no mirror at 4:45, I just gave up.  I went without contacts today.  No problem.  Maybe I’ll give up on them during the ride.  We unloaded everything from the tents, rolled them up covered with dew and put everything in the Hawg bus.  Are we having fun yet?

We left in a trio- Kristen, Tara and I at 6:15 and the temps were perfect and we were ready to go.  Kristen vowed that since she was successful with yesterday’s ride, she would not try to beat Lance in at the end of the day.  She did well at that and we yet again learned that this is not a race.  Pre breakfast was bananas and Gatorade by the side of the road at about mile 10.  But today was different.  There was a town about every 8 miles and it seemed that as soon as we got really going, it was time to go through a town.  Breakfast was in Webb and unlike yesterday’s breakfast routine, these guys were not nearly as ready as the folks yesterday.  They only had one line and the whole breakfast stop was over an hour long.  So why did we get up early?  But we met some fellow riders that made the hour pass quickly.

Our favorite town of the day was Laurens.  All the towns prepared, but these folks went the extra mile and get the DRP town of the day award!  It had a Polynesian theme and there hula dancers, Polynesian themes and even a volcano and bongo player.  Put perhaps the largest treat was when Kristen asked if she could use the rest room in the fire station with a huge smile and the fireman allowed her to forgo the Kybo (porta potty) line.  A major happening!

The town of Rolfe also went out of the way.  They take pride in their rare automobile collection.  But the show stealer was the redneck limousine that one of the townsfolk had for us to see… Oil that is!  Texas Tea! 

It was here that we met Gabrielle, Gavin, and Madison.  Their Mom and Dad were bringing them across the state on bikes.  They are quite cute and perfectly mannered.

After another 10 miles of following pacelines (don’t do this at home), into Bradgate, they were readying their giant slip and slide for later when the afternoon crowd comes through.

It was indeed a long day.  Tomorrow is another somewhat flat day for about the same degree of climb.  So this one depends on temps, weather and winds….

 

See you then!