Time: 4h49m45s
Distance: 124.60km
Avg Spd: 25.8km/hr
Climbing: 973m
Today was not a bad way to celebrate my 30th birthday. Never before have I had so many people know me and acknowledge the special day it is for me.
I was on sweep last night, so had to clean up camp this morning. Ava and the rest of the crew excused me from duties, but the Top Guns weren't ready to leave early so I stuck around and helped Billy load the trailer a little bit.
The ride today was nothing crazy - 120km and a decent amount of climbing. The roads were good. The scenery was much the same as yesterday and the day before. Lots of green and lots of farms. It was quite enjoyable. Except for the flats. Karel had three flats today, and that slowed us down a bit.
Being my birthday, the guys rode at my pace, which ended up being kinda slow, but it was just what I needed. We didn't stop much except for the flats. When we got into Chariton, we did a lap around the town square, then stopped in at the bike shop to get Karel a new tire. We then ducked into a sketchy sports bar for a quick birthday beer, then hit the candy shop, then made our way into camp. Dinner time had been bumped up from 6pm to 5pm, so when we rolled in at 4:15 we had to rush to set up our tents and shower (in the outdoor shower) before dinner.
The big surprised came at dinner - Ava and Brandon pulled some strings and organized five DQ ice cream cakes for dessert! The important thing to know is that there is no DQ in Chariton, and the closest one is many miles away. Apparently they got one of the gear truck drivers to make a detour and pick them up. Ava had called ahead and had them write a few of my one-liners from the last few weeks on the cakes. Except they spelled two of them wrong so they made no sense... it was funny just the same.
Tonight we've got the second half of the small group story time at peloton. Tomorrow is a short ride to Pella (44miles) so a few of us are going to hit it really early, grab breakfast in Pella and spend the rest of the day kicking around the town, which is supposed to be a great little touristy spot. No Wi-Fi again in Chariton tonight, so this will probably get posted on Friday.
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