We had our alarm set for 6:15, but there was no need of that. Our neighbors were up by 5:30, and by 5:45 making more noise than anyone could possibly sleep through, especially someone as restless as I was to begin with.
We scrambled around in the tent trying to change clothes, re-pack, and get out to start taking down the tent. We were required to be out of camp by 8AM. When I woke up, and during the night, actually, I felt that the sides of the tent were soaked. This was confirmed in the morning, and our two jerseys that we had laid out on top of the tent to dry overnight were soaked.
We got the tent down without incident, rolled up the plastic that we had on the ground, inserting our wet jerseys since the plastic was all wet, too. It had small blades of grass and ground debris in it as well. Not something to look forward to tonight when we unpack for the evening.
We had a delicious breakfast, and set out just before 8:00 on our big day, the 115-mile day. There were (3,4) pits stops, and then lunch at the 55-mile point. I was surprised that so many riders got on the SAG bus after lunch. At the first pit stop after lunch, I checked in with Brenda, who told me she was at the next pit stop, which was only three miles from her house! I told her that we were in Dinwiddie, and that it would be about one more hour before we got there. She said, “Okay.”
Right after we got underway, I started thinking, “In one more hour, it’s not possible that we’ll be three miles from her house, because she lives in Richmond, and we still had about 30 miles to go to Richmond.” So, when we reached the next stop, I called her again, and said, “I think you’re at our next pit stop,” which meant at least another hours. I told her to go home, since she was so close, and to come back close to an hour from now. “Okay,” she said. “I’ve got time to go home, shower, and come back.”
We did indeed see her at the next pit stop. She looked great. I hadn’t seen her since her breast cancer diagnosis, and she had since had a mastectomy, and lost and re-grew her hair. It really looked great, thick. We had a short, but very nice visit, getting a few pictures while we were there. Then Joe and I set out for the last pit stop, which was then just four miles from camp. (Verify this; this may have been Saturday’s 95-mile ride.)
[get notes from recorders about this day]
During the ride today, word started leaking out that we were going to be staying indoors tonight, due to flooding at the Richmond Motor Speedway, where we were supposed to set up tent city. I was thinking, “Thank God, a bed and bathrooms indoors.”
It was so cool finishing the ride this day, all 115 miles. We pulled into the Richmond Motor Speedway right at 8PM, and it was getting dark. Many of the riders were lined up to create a path to ride in through. As those of us who had done the whole thing rode in, they cheered wildly for us. That felt so good, being cheered on by people whom you know can identify and fully appreciate the great feat you just accomplished.
We were directed to the gear truck, and then went directly to the building in which we were going to be sleeping. I don’t know where I got this “bed” idea, but there certainly weren’t any of those. We were lined up, body by body, side by side, in a huge open room, much like the Jim Graham building from which we rode out. Joe and I found two open spaces side by side, and dropped our stuff down to mark our spot. We then rushed to the showers, which we heard were closing at 9:00.
We finished showering at about 9:20, and there were no signs of the showers closing. That really didn’t make sense as several of the riders who did the whole ride that day were just coming in at 8 or shortly thereafter. There’s no way we could have all finished showering by 9:00. It was good to be clean, though, and we set out to have our dinner.
[get dinner menu]
During the day, I had decided that I wanted to have the bike techs look at my bike. I was having a devil of a time shifting from the highest rung of the front cog down to the middle rung. I had to hit the gearshift a second time, and then it would hop down to the lowest rung, and then I’d have to shift up to the middle one. Also, due to an adjustment made at one of the stops early this morning, there was also a noise while I was pedaling.
When we went to park our bikes, Joe noticed that his front wheel was wobbling, so much so that as it went around, at one point, it would hit the brake, and stop the tire. We agreed that we both wanted to have our bikes checked out in the morning before we left.
Lights went out at 9:30, and as folks began to fall asleep, loud snores started popping up all around. People still awake started giggling. Once again, I had a totally restless night, awake most of the night, and tossing and turning a lot. Not fun.