4-06-08 I’m Riding On Sunshine!

Oh my goodness! I got the best sleep out of the whole entire trip last night. But, I slept through my alarm again and I swear I’m about ready to chuck the thing out the window if it doesn’t wake me up! I think that it’s because of the bed that I didn’t hear the phone. It was like sleeping on heaven. However it really didn’t matter since we're able to take our time this morning. The breakfast was great and it felt fabulous being able to eat something decent, for once. After breakfast we did last minute stuff and got packed and ready to go. It was really sad leaving Aunt Katie’s house, but I loved that I got to see downtown Hot Springs again! Everything looked old fashioned and I loved the architecture. When we got to the motel, Thomsen gathered us all up gave us a pretty concise overview of what needs to be done, which is basically all of the stuff we haven't been doing. I was glad that we all met, because we needed to talk out the problems that were going on. Some people don’t mind writing journals and others just don’t want to do it. Of course at the center of the whole thing is Thomsen who isn't really giving us a choice, so after he left we had a pretty spirited conversation. I think we finally understand that we made commitments to people to get certain things up on the website and so far we've been pretty bad at getting it done. And then, Thomsen doesn’t really hesitate to let us know when we've forgotten to do something. At any rate, all of us talked about how to get this stuff done and after a half hour or so I was designated the spokesperson for our group, so I told Thomsen what we decided on and that was that. Before we left for the kickoff point, Tim, Arielle, and I decided to get some food at a stand. At first I thought that it was going to be really nasty tasting, but when I took a bite of that lovely chicken quesadilla, it was amazing! As I threw down my food, a man next to me looked in my direction so I decided to strike up a conversation. I never did catch his name, but as we talked he told me that he'd actually been to Seattle. I've been really shocked to learn that a lot of people we've met have actually been to Seattle. Anyway, he talked for a while about what he did for a living, where he lived, and little things like that. Eventually he had to leave, but it was really neat talking to him. After we packed up and left, we drove out of town until Thomsen pulled us aside and asked who wanted to ride. I was tired of being cramped up in the car, so I happily volunteered to go. Out of all the rides that I have done so far, this was the best! I felt invincible! For most of the whole ride all I had was lovely down hills. I felt like I was flying and it felt great. I was really sad when I had to get off because I wanted more. But alas, I had to share my hills with the others. After a couple hours we pulled off at Hollis Camp, which was where the CCC had built their camp so that people could earn money. After about 30 minutes we started wondering where the Penske was. A biker rode in so I decided to ask him where the nearest town was. He said that it was miles away and he asked where we were from. I told him our story and he just laughed and asked why we were doing that? I explained that it was for environmental awareness and then he changed his tune and said he thought that was great. He and I talked for half an hour or so and then he left. After he left I thought about how easy it was to strike up a conversation and realized that what Thomsen has been saying all along was right - that sometimes the best rewards are just talking to people and learning about them. Any way, an hour passed by and we started getting really pissed off because nobody has shown up to pick us up. By the time the truck finally showed up to pick us up it had been and hour and thirty minutes! So much for planning. After the truck came to pick us up we found out that we had riders stretched out over a forty mile stretch. Cool. Apparently Thomsen is teaching the support drivers how to "drop and pick" as he calls it. I got dropped off about twenty miles down the road and, again, just loved it. Good pavement, flat, nice spring day, this is just great. Later on when everyone regrouped, I lucked out when I stopped, because when we began driving again, hill after hill started appearing. And to think that I wanted to keep riding. After we refueled ourselves, and the cars, we headed out once again on another leg. While we drove ahead of the other group, it was really funny exchanging stories and random facts. The time flew by, and the next thing I knew we were all piling out of the cars to get yelled at by Thomsen for goofing off and not listening to the chaperones. I felt really bad because Pat had told me to move from sitting in a dangerous spot at the entrance to a rest area and I didn’t move. Damn this is embarrassing. I think that I have learned my lesson. So now we are heading to Eufala, Oklahoma and I’m not too sure we will get there before sunset. Some of the boys are riding and at times I think they are, well, just plain slow. I hope we do! I’ll check in later so bye! Oh by the way my three favorite cities have been Nimrod, Booneville, and Magazine. Not only did they have funny names, but also the scenery was so pretty! It was a little more sparse than Seattle, but the open stretches of green hills made up for it!