Wednesday, June 24th, 2015
Start/End: Sioux City, IA/ Norfolk, NE
Mileage: 81+
Weather: Well, we’ll get to that.
Today we were woken up with some cool music- it has been a great new trend to our morning routine. We have rotating chores, one being wake up. For several days and certain chore partners, they have embraced the idea of playing good music to wake us up. I am pretty sure this is much more preferred than just turning on the lights….
Today, our ride was dedicated to a rider’s grandpa, who battled three different types of cancer throughout his life, beating two of them. Our rider was motivated to do this ride to honor her grandpa’s fight against cancer.
We left Iowa this morning, but not without some groups getting a little turned around, while others stopped at a farmers market. Either way, we all made it safely across the Missouri River to Nebraska, home of one of the latest additions to the Big 12 conference. Before long, we had turned onto NE-35W, the road we would be on for at least 70 miles for the day. The team is definitively split on whether more or less cues to turn are better. Before our first rest stop, we travelled on a very flat flood plain, but then approached some winding roads that took us up and around some hills most comfortably.
As we continued on our route, we became aware of some approaching adverse weather conditions. There was a lot of communication about potential locations along the route and were advised to take shelter in the event of lightning or any situations which riders felt unsafe. Fortunately, we all found shelter which we were able to hang out for the long while that the storm took to pass. There was lightning, plenty of rain, and one group even saw some hail! We are so thankful to the businesses that allowed us to use their facilities to take shelter.
Once that was over, we resumed a rather lovely day that resembled yesterday much more than expected. Hill after hill with more beautiful scenery. The winds died down as the afternoon pressed on, making our final ride into our stayover location a little easier.
Once we arrived at our stayover, we had an amazing pasta dinner provided by Napoli’s Italian Restaurant in Norfolk. Additionally we had some great discount opportunities from HyVee East and West in Norfolk for our team to be able to restock, as well as cases of water. Additionally we had the opportunity to use the showers at the YMCA in Norfolk and Grand Island. We thankfully smell much better :) We are very thankful for all of the support that this amazing town has shown us. It really continues to blow my mind the kindness we encounter along this route.
Also, it is amazing to see friends and family of the riders who stop by to say hello. Today we got to meet some great family members who were generous in providing amazing food, but also just the opportunity to hang out and learning about how cancer has impacted their life. Oh- and we can’t forget the visiting time with puppies.
I think we will all sleep well tonight after today, which was just a little longer than we anticipated. This is good because tomorrow will be a longer day, starting an hour early so than we can conquer 112 miles! So with that, I will close….but I will recommend that you check out some of our social media, because yesterday Sioux City’s local news station did a segment on Illini 4000 which features some of our awesome riders! This can be found off of our Facebook page. Additionally, we do have lots of pictures on our Instagram which we hope you enjoy!
-LAH
