BRAN: Day 2, Round 2

Yet again, I have no cell service. Somehow I can get the occasional picture to send, but I can't make voice calls. I'll try to find a high point later and try again. I'm typing this from a computer bus that was brought in for us to use. Very nice.

We got up at 4:00am mountain time today. Mark, Kim, and I had breakfast at 4:30, at the high school. We finished packing and Mark and Kim hit the road at 5:18 mountain time. I waited for Phil to roll out of bed (he has a terrible case of allergies) and we hit the road at 5:57 mountain time (we are now back in central time so all times from now on are central).

Phil and I rode together to the first SAG. We picked up a friend of mine at the first SAG and headed for SAG 2 at a decent clip. I thought Phil had fallen behind but it turns out that he had some problems with his bike. He did get it fixed and I saw him later in the day.

After SAG 3 Tom (the guy I met up with at SAG 1) and I were making good time. We stopped for watermelon just outside Arthur and that's when the rest of the Bike Masters group caught us. We headed into Arthur and had an awesome early lunch (I had spaghetti).

After that we moved on as part of the Bike Masters pace line. The group was about 20 people by that point after picking up extra people along the way that knew the advantage of riding with a group (about 30% easier to draft behind people than to fight the wind yourself).

Speaking of wind... today was brutal. We had 20-30mph winds plus gust around 35-40 (and 90+ temps). We had to ride straight into the wind in the morning for about 36 miles. The winds were a bit lower then and picked up around 12:00 or so.

After riding with the Bike Master group for a while I decided to hook onto the wheel of a faster rider. I rode the rest of the ride with him. Man, was he fast. We took turns cutting the wind while one of us drafted. We made great time even with the wind (which was coming at us from an angle because we had turned east).

I got into town at 2:00. Mark and Kim showed up at 3:30 or 4:00. Phil may be back but I have not seen him yet. The ride is heavily supported so even if he isn't done, if he has problems they will bring him in if he needs a lift.

One thing I can say about the scenery out here, BORING. Look... Grass and hills, and more grass and hills. Also, it seems weird, but there are tons of turtles out here. I've seen about 50 squished turtles in the last 2 days, and one live one.

Another day is done, my skin has a nice red tinge, and I'm REALLY tired.

Now to go find some shade and pass out. Later!

[For those of you who have not seen the
sun set lately, here's a video for you.]
Time lapse of sunset in an unknown location