There was plenty of daylight left when I got to La Grange. My first mission was a beer. I know that’s terrible considering that I had not eaten all day, but I was in a mood to celebrate. I sat quietly for a bit and watched my co-workers greet one another and exchange war stories from the day’s ride. I was so content. Once I finished my beer, I grabbed a beer for the trip to the shower. I hopped on the school bus to get a ride over to one of the area schools where we could shower. Having a beer on a school bus reminded me of my high school days. Funny, I could not ride a bike back then.
There was no line for the bus to the shower and there was no line for the shower. Woohoo!
All the gals in the locker room was chatting away. Exercise is the best high there is. I was caught up in the moment. I had been since I got to La Grange. After showering, I was packing up my bag, and I nearly fainted. I remembered for the first time since Fayetteville that I was starving.
I got on the bus back to the camp site in La Grange. On the ride back to the camp site, I got a text from Mr. LSU inviting me for a margarita at his team’s tent to celebrate the day. FUNNY, I again forgot that I had not eaten, and I dropped my stuff off at my own tent and headed out for a margarita.
Mr. LSU had a great ride as well, and their tent was in good spirits, but it did not have the energy that my team had. We sipped our margaritas and talked about the day’s ride. We even began planning another ride. This was a completely different mindset from the days that I planned to be put Blue on Ebay as soon as the MS150 was over.
Buzzing from my margarita, I headed back to my own team’s tent where I finally sat down to eat something in order to kill my buzz. I had so much fun over the next few hours hearing my co-workers talk about their day. Everyone agreed that the wind was brutal. I loved shaking my head no every time that someone asked if I had crashed. At one point, I sat down at the table with Trumpet, Canary, Mr.I Ride Really Fast on a Bike, Egal, Weatherman, Cowboys Fan and a few others and I came crazy close to flipping over backwards in the folding chair that I had sat down in. Learning to ride a bike has not improved my overall coordination.
We did have a few mishaps during the day. Egal had just gotten clips the Sunday before the ride, and she had two scraped knees to show for it, but she got back up both times and made it to the finish line. That’s the way she rolls. Canary earned his knee scrape in a more eventful manner. A girl in front of him crashed and he ran right into her. Nothing he really could have done to avoid the situation. He tells a great story.
I was too exhausted to sleep, and I was afraid I would have a nightmare once I did lay down to sleep. Once the lights did finally go out, it reminded me of my church camp days when we used to camp out at the lodge. Everyone was laughing at the mystery guy snoring. No one seemed to know who he was, and it was odd that he was gone the next day before any of us were up.
I thought that I was dreaming when I opened my eyes and found the lights were on and people were packing up their sleeping bags and air mattresses. Then I realized that it was morning. I was tired, but I was also greatly anticipating the day ahead…stay tuned for Day 2 of my MS150 riding adventure.