Day 41: Elizabethtown, KY to Springfield, KY; 47mi; 2520mi

What another great day of riding across America.  Although it wasn’t quite as cool as the ride into town, we had even more company.  I wasn’t expecting this, but when the Vittitow’s pulled into the parking lot to unload Chaz, Charlie hopped out with his old ten speed.  We also had Bob, the advisor for the Fijis until this semester, Austin, our friend who didn’t get enough the other day, and Alex, a friend who is a lifeguard for Tyler’s mom.  As we headed out of town, Bob told us that he was being sponsored for ten dollars per mile by family and friends and that he was riding in honor of his mother.  We liked riding around him and encouraging him.  Not only was he the oldest rider of the day, but he was riding a department store mountain bike that only had three working gears.

As we stopped at eleven miles from Etown, Mrs. Vittitow announced to the riders that she would sponsor Bob for $100 per mile for every mile after eleven if we didn’t tell him about the pledge.  We urged and encouraged him along, but as it heated up the bike resisted more until he put his bike in the truck at 31 miles.  Overall, Bob raised $2300 for Alzheimer’s research and showed us that he is a warrior on the bike.

I really enjoyed riding with all of our friends.  At one point, I gave my shoes to Austin and switched bikes with him.  The mountain bike was so different that I’m glad Tyler wanted to try it out for the last ten miles into Springfield.  After the last stop, I was feeling frisky, so I joined Justin and rode a bit faster to the truck.  We stopped at McDonald’s about ten or fifteen minutes before the rest who rode a leisurely pace.  This set us up for a view of one of the funniest things that has happened in weeks:

When I rode Austin’s mountain bike, I jokingly rode over every gravel driveway and small grass bump I could find.  Tyler did the same and successfully crushed a coke can with the fat tires.  As Justin and I waited in McDonald’s, Tyler tried his grand finale- riding down the grass hill to the parking lot.  He found out halfway down that it was a ditch.  With nowhere to go as the other riders occupied the pavement next to him, he went front-first into the ditch and stood up with a completely muddy front.  Austin’s bike was filthy.  I missed the crash but Justin jumped in shock in time for me to turn and see the swamp thing rise from the ditch.  Priceless.

We said goodbye to the guest riders; I’ll miss the different company.  After we loaded up we drove towards Lebanon to my friend’s farm where we ended the 4^th of July with barbecue sandwiches and some (very poor) frog gigging.  Happy Birthday America.

-Cameron