July 14, 2007 Wichita to Emporia, KS

The morning we rode to Emporia marked the first of three days in a row we would be waking up at 5:00 am. It's not a very motivating feeling to wake up and begin moving around when it's still so dark out. Our grid reads 115 miles but I think that it was about 107 miles. Only five or six guys rode the whole ride because of both the need to be at a sponsored lunch in the middle of the day and some construction in the road that delayed everyone. The rest of us finished the ride with about 86 miles. Lunch was at a restaurant in Cottonwood Falls on the way to Emporia which is a small, historic town but for some strange reason has an amazing restaurant in it. Two families that had already done some sponsored meals in Wichita sponsored us together for lunch. It's very cool to see families for former team members continue to be involved and see there support in all the places across the country. This was also the first day we saw really hot temperatures in Kansas. It would become a trend as we saw it stayed true throughout the state. Lodging was at a Boys and Girls Club-type place and the Kiwanis Club brought a potluck dinner to us. They also provided a professional masseuse and self-massaging bed for our use. This was the first time I had ever received a massage from a professional and it was pretty good. It was really relaxing; I could have fallen asleep. During dinner, I chatted it up with some women that were both members and wives of members of Kiwanis. We had great conversation and laughter going the whole time. After, I did laundry and wasted some quarters on an arcade game from the 80s. I got to sleep early that night.