After lunch the Habitat group of us (me, Caroline, Megan, Trey, Brando, Matt, and Alex) did various tasks throughout the house (hung blinds, did caulking, painted doors, put on closet doors, etc.). It was a good day. We had a radio, thus we were able to break into the occasional dance party.
We headed back to the church after and found out they had a karaoke machine. After singing hits of Grease and Lion King we got ready for dinner which was, once again, free Chipotle burritos. I'm definitely not against free food and I'm definitely not against Chipotle, but having Chipotle burritos twice in one day was definitely something I don't care to do again for a while.
Some utilized the screen and projector once again and watched a movie. While this was going on I organized a ping pong tournament for whoever was interested. 16 people played and it went on until right before lights out. Annie surprised everyone by beating pretty decent ping pong players, such as Ben, Matt, and Trey. Some also played some billiards and PS2 during the tournament, too. And because the only CD available in the room was Britney's Oops I Did It Again album I called the tournament The First Annual Britney Spears Ping Pong Tournament.
After a pretty decent night of sleep... oh, wait. That's the night I was sleeping in the hallway and Cali didn't know I was there and basically walked right into me and made me scream because I thought she was a monster. But after that night of sleep we woke up and headed for Lawrenceville, IL. I can't remember the ride that well. I think I biked with Trey, Robby, and Codde the first half of the day. There were a few rolling hills and then it seemed to flatten out a bit. After lunch in a school's parking lot the humidity kicked in hardcore and it got pretty hot out, even though the sun wasn't out. People got really tired, too. We ended up stopping at a McDonald's and got some iced coffee. After lunch I biked with a different bunch of people and ended up getting a flat in my back tire after hitting some gravel. I changed it and we got back on the road quickly.
That night we stayed at a church in Lawrenceville that had its AC blasting. It felt soooo good.
For dinner we got to go to the local Hardee's and (no exaggeration) order whatever we wanted. Now, I don't really eat a lot of fast food because it makes me feel gross and fat (FLASHBACK), but it was pretty awesome to go to town on Hardee's. I got some huge sandwich, fries, soda, and a huge milkshake. I felt so full after. Also, on the walk home I dropped my soda and it splurted up on me. Annoying, but funny. Then, we had to walk in the street back to the church and some old dude in a minivan pulled up and started honking and yelled at us for being in the street. He proceeded to turn around in a driveway and, once again, come back to us and yell at us some more before driving off in the direction he came from. This makes me wonder if he made the effort to drive after us just to yell at us?
There was an epic discovery in the upstairs room of the church later that night. It was a full costume of something that resembled a frog, but had a curly tail of a chameleon. It was also female. I had to put it on and scare people. I got a good five or six people pretty good because of a lot of dark areas in the church. I will post pictures later.
Another group of people did an affordable housing presentation that night. We worked in small groups and it was an interactive session. They did well.
The next morning we woke up getting ready to head for Salem, IL. The funny thing was it was lighter out the time we woke up (6am) than it was when we were about ready to leave (8am). We could hear thunder as the trailer was being loaded and were told to expect storms most of the day. Christina realized she had a flat before we took off and we convinced her to change it there under shelter instead of on the side of the road in a storm.
Andrea, Christina, Ali, Jodi, Jenna, and I took off and it started to rain pretty soon. Then, we kept getting screwed up on the cue sheet. Then, Christina got another flat and we pulled off and took shelter under some house's porch. Thank god no one came out and got freaked out by seeing a group of us in spandex standing there. It stopped raining shortly after which was awesome. We stopped at a gas station and filled on some on sugary sweets. Little did we know sweep had gotten ahead of us somehow. They waited for us on the side of the road playing some card game.
A mile or two before lunch Christina got her THIRD flat and was, as expected, not too happy. She needed to change her tube then and there, but didn't have it with her. Sweep didn't have a tire, either, but some guy pulled over who said he's a cyclist. He offered to give us a ride to the lunch spot so we could get Xtina's tire, but we can't accept rides from people like that. He was so nice that he drove to the lunch spot by himself, picked up the tire, and drove it back to us. We got to lunch (last), ate, and continued on. The rest of the day stayed rain-free and actually got nice out.
That night we stayed at a community center in Salem. The bad news was that the part we were staying in (the gymnasium) was not air conditioned and SOOOOO humid. The good news was that a wedding reception was going on in the other room and later in the night the bride encouraged us to come join and dance. We did the Tennessee Waltz. It was pretty fun. Then, the groom brought us to the kitchen where he gave us leftover pork, corn, and green beans for the next day's lunch. It was so kind of them to do that.
For dinner we invaded a local "hot spot" called Chico's. All we had to do was buy a large drink and we got tacos for 50 cents. Some people went crazy and ordered like 14. I ordered six, but then ate a bunch of pizza we got for free and then felt pretty disgusting after eating all those tacos. I held it down, though.
The next morning we woke at 5 to leave for St. Louis. Actually, we woke at 5:20 or so because no one could hear their alarms going off in the morning because the gym fans were too loud.
After getting prepped and ready a bunch of us hit Hardees for free coffee they were willing to give us. We FLEW to lunch after that. We had a pretty solid pace line and kept at like a 20mph speed. We ate lunch at some little league tournament so cheered on some local teams as we enjoyed our PB&Js.
Overall, besides Sarah getting a flat on her Armadillo tires (and Lesley made fun of her; note that) the ride into St. Louis was feeling pretty good..... and then the clouds darkened.
Before I get into that let me just say before the storm we saw the most amazing cloud ever. It was this huge black cloud that was almost surrounded at the edges by a white cloud. But it looked like the white cloud was being sucked into the black cloud. It seriously felt majestic. A pic won't do it justice, but I'll try to post one later.
And then it started storming like crazy. And our first instinct was to get off our bikes on the bike path we were on, stand in a circle, and sing Kumbi Ya (spelling is way wrong). The rain was freezing and it even hailed a bit. It turned into a drizzle soon and we pushed through on our way to St. Louis. When we got to this one grated bridge we (maybe ten of us; girls and guys) all decided to pee THROUGH the bridge. Not off or on it, but through it. Definitely a great memory.
It was also funny when we got on the bridge to cross the Mississippi and Lesley's Gatorskin blew. As Sarah pointed out, "Karma's a bitch."
Me, Dennis, Andrea, and Christina kept going and soon after getting off that bridge Dennis got a flat (and, yes, he did make fun of Lesley's flat). At that point Jodi and Jenna found us coming from the other direction and I guess the last ten miles on the cue sheet were majorly screwed up. Because of others and taking the wrong roads we were able to avoid the ten mile detour and go straight to UMSL. Not before TONS of random hills, though. Needless to say, everyone was so thankful to be done with that ride.
Originally, some people had a pool party planned for us that night, but, because of the rain, it just turned into a little potluck dinner. They were friends of the Webbers and made us plenty of great food.
Some of us went out after that, but others went back and crashed pretty early.
Even though today was our day off, I still woke at 7am ready for the day. Goose, Cali, Ravi, and Christina were up, too, so we headed for the Metro to go downtown. We got breakfast at a local cafe first and hit up the bike shop and then we went downtown.
It was such good luck for us that they were having the Home Run Derby that night and All-Star game the day after. There were so many great booths set up. We got some free Budweiser, free tacos, Aaron got a free shave by Gilette. Swag is great. The rest of the afternoon we checked out the arch (which is really cool to look at) and walked MANY blocks to see the City Museum which turned out to be more of a playground for kids that cost $12. Aaron, Jbaby, and I decided to head back after and got some pizza along the way. A cyclist team provided dinner for us and Aaron and I worked on my bike after because of issues I was having hearing a popping noise.
Alright, early wake up and rough week ahead.
Just keep spinning!
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