Big Ride Day 38

Photos from Day 38

69 flat miles made for a pretty easy day today. I "slept in" until 5:30 and we got a pretty late start. Rain threatened early but we only got sprinkled on. Things were fairly routine for the first 35 miles to the Ohio border. That was when I realized that my precious American flag was gone (again!). This has been a recurring theme throughout the ride. So far, I've lost it three times and it has been returned to me by another rider the other two times. This time, I realized that I had had it four miles back down the road so I decided to go back and look for it while Doug and Mary went on ahead. I got one of the ALA volunteers to help me out by looking for it in a car too. I retraced my steps back towards the McDonald's parking lot where I had had it last and saw many people along the way. No one remembered seeing my flag. I finally made it back to the parking lot and still didn't find it. I was really bummed and turned around to head back to Doug and Mary. After I made it a few miles back down the road, the person who had offered to look for it in the car pulled up along side me and had the flag! I was really happy. The flag was in really ratty condition so I think I will have to retire it. I don't have the heart to bury it as it has come to mean a lot to me. We'll see what happens. As soon as I got the flag back, I started sprinting up to find Doug and Mary. I was really flying and was topping out at 23 mph on the straights. After a few minutes, it started really pouring rain on me but it actually felt good because of the heat and humidity. I kept riding hard and eventually found my way back to Doug and Mary. A little while later we reached checkpoint where we had apparently just missed a duet of 80-year-old musicians that really rocked. We were bummed about that.

After checkpoint, we had Subway for lunch and then continued on, getting into a deep conversation as the day wore on. That made the rest of the ride fly by until we suddenly realized we were in Napolean. We stopped for ice cream on the way into town before making our way to camp. As with most other small towns, we were welcomed with open arms. There were signs everywhere and people were so friendly on the way into town. We are camping at a fairgrounds tonight. It looks like it could storm -- typical Eastern weather. Dinner was pretty good.

This page modified November 25, 2000