Thursday, July 7th, 2016

We all enjoyed not waking up to Ana alarm after what ended up being a slightly late night last night. We have been trying to sprinkle in fun, silly events throughout the summer, and last night’s event was I4K Prom. What the event basically boiled down to was a dance party. Ashley’s mom sent little lights that you can wear like rings, and we all had fun being goofy dancing with them. The funniest part of the night was right when we started. We had just turned out the lights and I noticed a security guard walk in the door. As I was walking towards him, he stopped and observed everyone dancing with these little lights shining everywhere. When I asked how he was he responded, “Shocked.” No one had told him we were staying there, so he was concerned when he saw 17 people dancing in the cafeteria. When we explained he just laughed and went on his way.

After we were done with dancing we lit the sparklers Lindsey got for the 4th that we never used. We had fun taking pictures spelling out Illini 4000 and I4K.

Today we all went on a team date out to lunch in downtown Rapid City. It’s a very cute downtown with a lot of restaurants and stores. They also have statues of presidents on every street corner as well as paintings on all of the electrical boxes. It creates a very artsy feel.

After lunch most of us went to see Finding Dory. It was the perfect rest day activity. We came out ready for dinner and ready for bed.

We are waking up at 3:45 tomorrow morning so that we can roll by 5. We have a long day of climbing and we want to spend a little time at Mount Rushmore, so we all voted to get an early start.

We are feeling refreshed and ready for the next stretch of ride days!

DR