Day Off in Chadron, NE

The ride into Chadron was gorgeous! It was a short 47 miles, and even on sweep we managed to get there before noon. I swept with Lisa and it was really nice to be able to share some quality time with her and learn more about her. We had a really great ride together. The weather was perfect, the terrain has started changing (less nothing-ness and more trees), and the wind seemed to just completely go away for the day. We cruised all the way to Chadron with absolutely no issues, no one getting lost (we've been on the same highway through the entire state so it's hard to get lost now), and getting in only a few minutes behind the last riders. It has been a really tough week of riding, and we all were in good spirits to have such an easy ride and a day off.

We all hung out last night at the local fair grounds, and had a great time laying in the bleachers drinking some beers, talking, and looking at the stars. We were in bleachers that overlooked a horse track, and some people thought it would be funny to pretend to be horses and "race". About five people got down there and started prancing around like horses, showing off and allowing us watching from the stands to place our bets on who we thought the winner would be. I chose Barbara, mostly because I had seen her run earlier and knew she was pretty fast. They sprinted about 50 yards and sure enough Barbara won due to my amazing screams of encouragement I'm sure lol. It was a good night that we all desperately needed.

Today people woke up around 8 or 9, which it's sad to say is sleeping in for us now, and I went with some people to get an egg and cheese sandwich and coffee. I'm now at the Chadron Public Library (so no pictures right now, but I'll add some when I can) with some other B&Bers. Plans for the day are not much; write some postcards, watch a movie in my sleeping bag, maybe nap, eat, and possibly walk around town. My bike also needs a good cleaning. So yeah, my agenda is pretty lame for today, but I have a feeling I'm going to love every minute of it. My body, and everyone else's, was really needing this time to do nothing and hopefully recover a bit.

Tomorrow we enter Wyoming! Hopefully that state will not hate my cell phone and I will finally get service again. I think it's suppose to be about an 80 or 90 mile ride, but I'm not sure. Ohhh and a girl on the trip, Brooke, cut my hair last night and it looks so good! I absolutely love it. She trimmed like an inch off, put 3 long layers in the back, and gave me some side sweepy bangs kinda. It looks really good. I straigtened it last night (can you believe a girl on the trip brought a hair straitener? lol) and it was so awesome.

ok, my time is pretty much up now (you only get a half hour of computer time in the library here) so I will say goodbye for now and leave with just one more thought. The weirdest/coolest thing about B&B is that no matter how hard your day was, how bad the ride was, how windy/hot/cold/rainy of a day it was, how boring of a ride it was...etc at the end of it I never can remember the bad parts. All I remember is how amazing it was, how much fun I had, and all the good parts. I think the trip has to be this hard at times to be able to really appreciate all the amazing parts through the day. Even though it's tough and both physically and mentally challenging, it is an unique adventure that only people who have done it can completely understand what I mean when I say at the end of the day all you remember is the good.