Griswold, IA to Des Moines, IA

Today was a pretty strange day.

We woke up by 6, had breakfast, and got ready for our century ride. Last night was miserably hot and humid. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep too well and was droggy for the start of the day. Today was a little different than the usual day, as we had around 6 past Journey of Hope riders, also known as Pi Alphas, who decided to ride along with us for today’s ride. One of those Pi Alpha’s, Matt Larson, rode along Alex Mitchel, a U of M student who did Journey of Hope two years ago. I had the pleasure of riding with him along with a few other during today’s ride. For our ride today, we had to complete the first 85 miles before 12:30 or else we would have to rack the rest of the way to Des Moines, because of time restraints for lunch. We had to begin the ride, by racking out of the forest and onto the main road, where we stopped yesterday. It was quite dusty, and after the ride to the road, my bike was covered in dust…not cool. We started the ride, and all was going well. The rolling hills weren’t too bad today. I also did a lot of knee stretches and my knees were feeling fine. By the 20 mile mark, we hit some rough construction, to the point where we couldn’t ride. So we had to rack our bikes back on the vans to the end of the construction zone, which was 1.5 miles away. To we wasted 1 complete hour racking our bikes to go 1.5 miles. That was awful considering the fact that we had a pretty tough deadline for today. At this point, we all realized that we wouldn’t make rack point…it would be impossible, an average of 30 mph would be the only way it was feasible. We hopped on our bikes and went as far as we could go. Because of the whole mess today, a lot of people were hopping on different pacelines, which I guess made the rider a little more stranger. Rack point then changed to the 60 mile point. A little known fact: at this point, we were at the birth place of John Wayne. Regardless, I was a little irittated that we had to rack in order to get to the sponsored lunch. Although I was a little pissed off, I knew it would happen eventually, no JOH ride is perfect. We hopped in the vans and drove the remainder 40 miles, where I took a well deserved nap.

We got to the Marriot hotel in West Des Moines, where we were served lunch from a former Pi Alpha. We had “walking taco’s,” which were a packet of Doritos filled with ground beef, lettuce, shredded cheese, and salsa. It was pretty good, but a little interesting.

We headed into the hotels, and relaxed until dinner. At 5, we headed to Red Robin, where we were sponsored by one of the parents of another kid on the trip. They paid for a meal at Red Robin’s for each of us. Although I’ve heard of the restaurant, I never went there before. It’s basically a slightly nicer Applebee’s. I got a chicken burger, which was pretty good. After dinner, we headed to the shopping mall where we walked around. My sandals broke earlier, so I bought a new pair. By the time we headed back, it was 9 and most of us were exhausted. I came back, worked out a little, and went to bed. Although I was disappointed I couldn’t complete the last 40 miles, at least I got to do the first 60.