St. Louis to Washington

Today I had the pleasure of sweepin with Drew on the Katy Trail. As previously mentioned, sweep is the last two riders who carry brooms and sweep up the tracks that we leave. Jokes. In reality, sweep is the last two riders who stay a bit behind with extra tubes, tires, and a med kit. While normally a 54 mile day would not take very long, a 54 mile day as sweep, on a gravelly trail, waiting for each stop every rider ever decides to make, ends up taking the full day. 

At only mile twelve, we found several folks at the entrance to the Katy Trail where there was a lake with kayaks and paddle boards. We played at the lake for about an hour before everyone headed out.

We waited a few minutes to be behind them, and after catching up and slowing down with the last group a few times, Drew got a few flats and had to change his tire. So we ended up rolling into lunch pretty late (some of the first riders were pulling into the host at the time we arrived to lunch). 

After lunch, all we could see were corn fields and then...the world's largest tractor. The tires were bigger than I am. Just before walking down to get a closer look/play on the tractor, I jinxed us by asking what we would so if the owner drove up. Sure enough, as we were creeping around the machine, a big truck pulled up. Before he could get angry, I played ignorant/ childish wonder card and said "I've never seen tires so big!" And Drew added "and I've never seen so much corn in one place." The man was unimpressed, but also wasn't visit angry and must have thought we were total idiots as we biked away, so all was left unharmed. 

At the end of the day, we caught up to another group who had let the heat get to them a bit too much while changing flats. We spent about 30 minutes laughing at their strange accents and silly moods only 5 miles from the host. I started coxing them in and couldn't catch my breath from laughing at myself. I think it actually may have been the heat. We then were stopped less the .3 miles from the host as the group in front of us spotted a sonic. I slowly lost my composure sitting on the table at sonic laughing at all of the accents and stories shared. Finally, we made it back to the host, where there was coffee, a huge taco bar, and a bunch of friendly community members. I fell to the floor and layed there for possibly an hour laughing, zoning out, and chatting with Dan about our days. 

'Twas a good day indeed.