Days 28-31: Omaha, NE to Grand Island, NE

• Distance: 32.72 mi (personal)
• Elevation: 962 ft (personal)
• Dedication: Jeremy Pope and Uncle Tim
• Ride group: Eli, Chase, Grace, and Bailey
• Host: St. Paul’s Lutheran Church

We are officially on the move again! After a few wonderful days quarantining/vacationing in Omaha, we left our AirBnB paradise for Grand Island, Nebraska. After three days of sleeping in, swimming, relaxing, and celebrating the 4th of July it was a little sad to be leaving but I think we were all ready to get back on our bikes.

We were technically covering 140 miles today because we were a day behind but ended up racking at 6 PM to get to the host in time for dinner. It was a really tough ride for most of the team because of the heat. I was not feeling great today so I ended up biking 30 miles total. I started out in the water van with Shelby and Bethany and we stopped for breakfast at Scooter’s (a drive-thru coffee chain) which was fantastic. I got on my bike at the first water stop and rode 20 miles with Eli, Chase, Grace, and Bailey! Bailey has been dealing with some knee issues for most of the trip and this was the first time we’ve ridden together since Day 1! She absolutely crushed 40 miles today which was so amazing.

After a month of relatively good luck with flats, today our team got a whopping nine flats. My group got two right in a row that slowed us down quite a bit. We were the last group to roll in to our second water stop and I decided to rack again there.

We had a very late lunch today that took a very long time because the groups got very spread out. It was also extremely hot– I tried to take a nap on one of our tarps but couldn’t get comfortable because I was so sweaty. I did decide to ride after lunch, though, because by that time it was 5 PM and we were only going to ride for an hour before shuttling to the host. I am so glad I did, too! Eli and I joined up with Maggie, Jake, Collin, and Richa because the rest of our group decided to rack. We did a swift 12 miles with a nice tailwind most of the way. The last few miles we got hit by some pretty intense winds from a nearby storm and it was so cool. We saw some crazy clouds and got blown around a bit (in a fun way) before the host van scooped us up.

At the host we had two exciting things waiting for us: the run team and our team jerseys! We were supposed to meet up with the runners in Omaha but that was delayed due to our COVID status. There are only 7 of them and they seem like a nice group! It will definitely be an adjustment socially and logistically to finish the rest of the trip with them but I’m sure we’ll adapt quickly. They also brought our team jerseys from Baltimore which I am so so excited for! Now I don’t have to wash one of my two jerseys every night :)

Until tomorrow!
Lauren