Day 20 – Bummin’ around Rapid City.
Rapid City, SD
Ahh lovely rest day. Slept in to a whopping 7:30 a.m., had a fantastic breakfast of yogurt and fruit provided by Ane’s family (and kept cold overnight in a make-shift cooler—ice in the sink covered by a bag of clothes), and went for coffee at the gas station across the street. We walked down to the bike shop, but they didn’t have a ton of inventory of things I needed. It was already well into the 90’s by the time we walked over there, and next time I’ll remember to consider riding my bike. Spent a lot of the day relaxing, which I’ve discovered is the number one priority for me on rest days. Ane’s aunt and uncle came to take us out to lunch at Boston’s, which was perfect: huge and fresh greek salad with a spinach and basil pizza. Mmmm. They were so sweet, and even were willing to take us to Target and the sporting goods store.
We watched to Tour de France on the TV, which was very exciting to watch with the cycling experience I have now, and with the people around me who were also all very excited. Then right before I went to bed, Ane and I sat down to watch my brother’s slideshow from the very first morning of our ride. It was so pleasantly surprising how much fun it was to view all of the photos from that morning, and it brought back all of the emotions, anticipation, nerves and energy from those moments. Seeing the pictures of everyone else who at that time were total strangers to me, and there were so many of these strangers that I’d spend the next 48 days with. Remembering those first impressions, seeing us all collectively as strangers, was such a striking contrast to and realization of our now tight community, now knowing these people’s stories, having shared every good and bad day I’ve had with those people.
Ahh lovely rest day. Slept in to a whopping 7:30 a.m., had a fantastic breakfast of yogurt and fruit provided by Ane’s family (and kept cold overnight in a make-shift cooler—ice in the sink covered by a bag of clothes), and went for coffee at the gas station across the street. We walked down to the bike shop, but they didn’t have a ton of inventory of things I needed. It was already well into the 90’s by the time we walked over there, and next time I’ll remember to consider riding my bike. Spent a lot of the day relaxing, which I’ve discovered is the number one priority for me on rest days. Ane’s aunt and uncle came to take us out to lunch at Boston’s, which was perfect: huge and fresh greek salad with a spinach and basil pizza. Mmmm. They were so sweet, and even were willing to take us to Target and the sporting goods store.
We watched to Tour de France on the TV, which was very exciting to watch with the cycling experience I have now, and with the people around me who were also all very excited. Then right before I went to bed, Ane and I sat down to watch my brother’s slideshow from the very first morning of our ride. It was so pleasantly surprising how much fun it was to view all of the photos from that morning, and it brought back all of the emotions, anticipation, nerves and energy from those moments. Seeing the pictures of everyone else who at that time were total strangers to me, and there were so many of these strangers that I’d spend the next 48 days with. Remembering those first impressions, seeing us all collectively as strangers, was such a striking contrast to and realization of our now tight community, now knowing these people’s stories, having shared every good and bad day I’ve had with those people.
posted by elizabeth at 11:10 PM
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