Diary

Mileage:  72.8 miles (117 kms)

Elevation Change:  1325 feet (404 meters)

Weather:  sunny and hot, strong wind

Morale:  Happy to have a day off!

Incidents:  Christopher completely set up the room for us before arrival

Daily Summary:

We stayed up late last night so the 6am wake-up seemed very early this morning.  We had been at the rodeo until 11pm, where we saw bronco riding, saddle broncs, calf roping, steer wrestling, mutton busting, and team roping.  GREAT stuff!  We were laughing all night about how we could possibly explain these events to our French friends.  A wonderful evening, and a fun way to spend Bastille day!

 

Today’s ride was supposed to be like yesterday's ride, so we were expecting a pretty easy day.  And while yesterday’s ride took us 4 hours, today’s took us 5 and a half!  Same distance, same profile, but—the wind had shifted!  Plus that extra 90 minutes meant that the temperature was higher.  It’s over 100 now, though it was only about 95 when we finished today.  We are all very tired and happy to have a day off.   The scenery is very agricultural.  Fabulous grain elevators, humongous tractors, and corn, corn, corn. 

 

We were pretty tired when we got in, so our reception was especially nice.  First, the hotel gave everyone an ice cream bar on check in.  Then we went to the room and Christopher had set EVERYTHING up for us.  He had hauled suitcases, unpacked, put everyone’s stuff away, left nice notes, and even left an iced diet pepsi for his Mama in the ice bucket.  Yippee!

 

In the pix below, you see a great shot of steer wrestling at the rodeo last night.  Then, some fabulous grain elevators.  Finally, part of Christopher’s room set up to pamper his family.  Tomorrow we’re going to teen-age boy heaven:  a water park with go-carts, paintball, bumper boats, batting cages, etc.  It will be for Christopher’s b-day celebration.