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Published: June 24th 2018
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Fayetteville to Raleigh
This morning chore groups switched which means that the Ellies were back on cooler crew & I was assigned Sweep with Beth for our 81 mile day. Though the kitchen was small, we managed to pack up the coolers after everyone enjoyed a pow-wow breakfast in the youth room. We all discussed why we all woke up at 1am thinking it was time to leave and Noah even admitted to deflating his thermarest. Turns out it was bc of Magpie coughing and she ended up removing herself to the bathroom (& maybe slept there?!). Her sinus infection continues and is leaving a lingering cough as she annoyed with not being able to taste food. Hopefully she can get better (& some rest!) soon!
After packing up the lunch van and route meeting, where I had town facts about Noah’s hometown, we got fired up and rolled out after helping Kristi with the last few details of locking up the host. Magpie joined Beth & I on our sweep date and we were off! Most of the roads were pretty desolate so I asked them to tell me about their grandmothers and we all exchanged stories about
their amazing life stories and some of our favorite memories with them. Admittedly, I did get a bit choked up talking about Grandmom but am grateful for her life & what she has taught me & the time we spent together. We also discussed favorite childhood memories, took a brief snack break, and continued on the rolling hills of a day.
We arrived at lunch around mile 43 behind a church that was empty and had some shade. Kristi handed me and Beth a Coke (mine labeled “teammate” and hers “leader” appropriately) and we ate some left overs in the shade as we played with the lunch dogs that decided to grace us with their presence! It was nice to have some doggo friends to play with! The third team (team before Sweep) took some lunch snoozes so it was a bit before we got back on the road. I hate that I always feel anxious and need to get back on the road rather than enjoy everything & relax at lunch. Perhaps it’s teaching me something. But, regardless, being on sweep is nice bc then you just have to go after everyone leaves and you get to enjoy
a guilt-free lie down session.
The rest of the day was full of hills, heat, & fun! Around mile 50 I wasn’t feeling well and had to pull over and take some advil. Beth volunteered to pull us with the goal of a gas station not too many miles away in mind. We stopped and I got an ice cream sandwich and cold water to save my life. We attempted sweep challenge and asked a few guys outside how to pronounce Raleigh—turns out they weren’t locals but instead from NY & were very impressed with our journey. After icing them one of my cards, we attempted it again inside the gas station and though it was wildly entertaining, it wasn’t properly documented so there was no way we could send it on group me.
After relaxing there for a bit, we rode on another few miles before coming across a lake on NC State’s university and of course we had to take a quick dip! Jumping into much swallower water than we were expecting, we enjoyed the quick cool off, dressed up again, and rode on to second lunch at Maryville University. We enjoyed some half melted popsicles,
peanut butter, refilled on water & Gatorade, and rode on for the remaining 15ish miles. The last stretch was all hills & hot so we were very grateful to roll into the host after hitting 81 miles.
At the door, we were greeted by the infamous Hoyle, as well as some AC! Kristi put my bike away and I laid down on the floor, enjoying relaxation, watermelon sour patch kids, & and veggies, chips, & hummus graciously brought over by Kristi! After showering, we enjoyed an amazing dinner of a taco bar and the team gave a presentation, as well as Hoyle sharing his favorite Bike & Build story (“No Nails Claire!”). After dinner, we sat around debating going out or not, some people opted to, as well as with SUS13 Alum Chelsea—a good friend of MSJ who told her about B&B (& I’m so glad she did!)—however me and the majority sat around, painted nails, and decided going to bed early sounded much more appealing. I sat up my thermarest in the sanctuary where it was nice, dark, & quiet and drifted off to sleep with an actual alarm set for our build tomorrow.
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