Today’s ride was dedicated to Cheryl Merkel. Cheryl was Sisi’s first roommate at the University of Illinois, and Sisi has always felt that Cheryl was a grandmother figure that adopted her into her extended family. Unfortunately Cheryl lost her battle with cancer. We biked today with her and Sisi in mind.

Today was TOUGH and I’m so proud to be on a team that accomplished what we did today! Our maximum elevation thus far in the trip has been around 4,000 feet, but today we did 7,200 feet!!!! That is well over an entire mile of climbing mountains, a crazy and awesome fear for any cyclists, but especially novice cyclists like ourselves. In the morning we got to see Mount Rushmore, which was a lot cooler than I expected it to be personally. There is a lot of history behind it being carved and it was fun to read about it and see it in real life! I think for a lot of us, this adventure of a trip has given us the opportunity to see things in America that we would not otherwise get to see. The day was hot once again, but we toughed it out and stayed very hydrated and in high spirits.

Tonight we are at Newcastle High School and thankfully have in-house showers to clean off all of the sweat from this hot day! We also got pizza donated to us from Pizza Barn, and we all got more than enough to be full and very happy. For the next couple of weeks, our roll out time will be 6am instead of 7am. That’s alright because our bodies are kind of used to that due to the recent change into the Mountain Time Zone. We are leaving earlier to hopefully get many more miles in before the heat gets to us.

Sisi definitely gets a shout-out today for her grit and resilience. Sisi was having a pretty tough day (as was everyone!) but she stuck it out, went up every single hill, and finished the day strong, all while being so kind and supporting her teammates. She truly embodied what it is to struggle but keep the end in sight and overcome.