Lubbock, TX

7.12.2010

Today we had another pretty simple ride. It was about 75 miles over awesomely flat terrain. The roads got to be a little bit worn at times, but it didn’t slow us down too much. I didn’t listen to music at all today because we were too busy talking about our lives. There were 5 men in our pace line, and we rode the whole day in the formation of the five dots on the five side of a die. The person in the middle would take over telling a funny or embarrassing story about themselves or something they’ve experienced, and we would cycle (pun completely intended) in and out of the center position when telling our tales. The day flew by like nothing.

Later in the day, Nick Breaux jumped in the mud on a dare.

We got to our destination, and had some free time to head over to the bike shop before our friendship visit. I was able to get the spoke on my back wheel replaced so that my wheel would be true again. It was a good thing we got to a bike shop today, because I had already ridden about 200 miles on it since it broke, and it probably wasn’t doing my rims any good. While I was there, I also bought a new bite valve for my camelbak to replace the one that fell off along the road to Roswell.

The friendship visit was great. All of the participants and volunteers were very interactive with us, and it was easy to make conversation. They had a jungle gym over by one side of the facilities, so we spent some time goofing off over there. We were playing games on the swings, balancing on railings, and climbing all over stuff. I felt like I was 10 again. The only downside was that there were swarms of mosquitoes. I learned that the sayings were true about everything being bigger in Texas. These buggers were straight out of Jurassic Park. Also, I had my second encounter with fire ants when I accidentally left my flip flops on top of their colony. Fortunately for us though the dinner portions are also bigger in Texas, which sort of makes up for the state’s gargantuan insects.