High Point, NC

8.7.2010

Our ride today was about 93 miles, and was comparable to the first long ride I did while training. The distance was pretty much exactly the same, and the scenery was beginning to look a lot like the northeast. It was sunny outside, but the temperature was pretty cool all day. We rode through pine forests, and past lakes and livestock pastures. I decided around mile 10 that I was going to do my best to try to “pull” the pace line the whole day. This means I would be riding in front of our four man group and taking most of the wind resistance, as if I was riding by myself. This made the three other guys’ jobs a little easier by giving them a little bit less wind to deal with.

I was able to stay out in front the whole day, and when we got to our friendship visit, it definitely felt like I was working a lot harder than I had been the other days of the trip. That could have been because we had a headwind for probably half of the day. It got a little easier towards the end of the day when we started playing with my “Would You Rather” cards. Best impulse buy I’ve ever made.

Random Big Chair Monument

We also got to a point on the road today where we held a moment of silence for a man named Todd Porterfield. He was a member of the Alpha Delta chapter of Pi Kappa Phi at the University of Washington who died while riding on the Journey of Hope South Route. He was hit by a truck while riding with the four other members of his pace line. He spent his last summer living for others, as he had in the rest of his life. It was a reminder how wrong things can go, even if you’re following all the rules.

Our friendship visit today was at the High Point Museum. I did a scavenger hunt with a man named Bill who was explaining to me a bunch of things about growing up on a farm in the 1920s. He told me about riding in a horse drawn buggy to school, and the change for his family when they got a Ford model T. He was a really great guy, and we placed 4th in the scavenger hunt.

There are officially only 7 days until we’re in D.C. I’m super bummed.