Segment 4: Ride Day 19 - An "Ordinary" Day (Part 1)

Route: Weatherford, OK to Elk City, OK (First Presbyterian Church)

Distance: 47.97 miles

Riding Time: 3 hours: 29 minutes

Average Speed: 13.7 mph

Max: 31.4 mph
Weather: Another lovely day in Oklahoma! High of 86... or something ridiculous like that. Light, favorable winds. Perfect.

Mileage Report

• Training Miles: 1384 miles (January 1- June 7)
• FCBA Miles (so far...): 1400 miles (June 8 - July 3)
• Total miles logged for 2013: 2784 miles

NOTE: This means that I have now officially biked more miles on the Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure (over the course of a month) than I biked to train for this trip (over 5 months +). Yahoooo!

And now, for what I really wanted to talk about today....

... ordinary days!! I have noticed a tendency in my blog posts (and the internets in general) to focus on what is the most novel, unique, exciting, shocking, or absurd. I do love shiny, colorful, exciting pictures of crazy things as much as the next person. However I think something is lost in all of that glitter and jazz. There are miracles to be found in the mundane. There is a universe beyond what we notice first. It is important, at least once every few weeks, to pay as much attention to the small steps that make a day come together as we do to the grand and fabulous things that make each day new. And, it is important to celebrate those things. So, this blog is in celebration of the ordinary, the everyday, the many many tiny things that go into pulling off a trip like this one.

1) (Good) Morning!!

Wake up 1 hr. before breakfast. Put on cycling clothes, sunscreen, chamois butter (everywhere), etc.
Shove everything possible into these two bags.

Load up the bike with snacks. Put on shoes.

Have bags out for the friendly trailer-packing crew 15 mins. before breakfast time.

Eat breakfast. Today I got to watch this while munching my oatmeal-banana-peanut butter mixture and swinging on a porch swing. (Also there were a few bleary-eyed college students milling about and staring at me like a bunch of dazed Angus cattle. Trust me, after today, I know what that looks like.)

Finish up morning chores (water coolers filled in the bathtub and ready to go - check!)

Check tire pressure. Use pump. Don't forget to put it back into the trailer.

We circle up (often about as fast as a bunch of sloths after a mid-morning nap) and Melissa passes out the route sheet for the day with all the turns and mileages along the way. We have a short devotional and prayer and then, with a cheer of thanks for our host church and another cheer for our destination for the day we are on our way: Oyee!

2) Morning into Ride

And then we ride...

And we ride...

And we ride until...

We meet the van for our first rest stop! (about 20-25 miles in) A lot of eating peanut butter and bananas happens here. Also a lot of bathroom breaks in all kinds of creative, discreet locations.
Additionally today, we met lots and lots of grasshoppers in all shapes and sizes and colors... and a few of them accidentally pinged off our our spokes or, unfortunately, squished under our tires. Poor little hoppers. :(

After we leave the rest stop, we keep on going... until we don't. And then we stop and check that handy little route sheet. Remember that from this morning? Right.

Sometimes this step takes a long time.

Sometimes, in emergency situations, Mark even pulls out his spyglass. 

And sometimes we see this:it's a...a ... Giant Porcupine!! But he's not moving very fast. Ok, he's not moving at all. Ok, so he is actually dead. For the last few states these poor, debilitated critters have primarily been lots and lots of armadillos (or "carmadillos" as Nicole calls them) but we have also seen countless squirrels, raccoons, opossums, turtles, snakes, birds of all size, hawks and occasionally critters that make me much more sad... I know, not pretty. But it happens, folks. Every day. Mostly upwards of 15-20 times a day. And it is even less fun to see from a bike than from a car. True story. So drive slower all you wonderful car-driving people out there!! ... please? :)

And then eventually (today after only one stop!) we arrive at our lovely destination!