I can now wax poetic on the beauty of the humble soybean plant and the fragrance of the pig slurry! Farm roads are wonderfully quiet but we would have been grateful for some shade or forested areas.

It was dang hot - 98 on Saturday and 96 on Sunday and many people (1600 participated) swooned in the heat and had to sag to the finish. Several cases of hypoetremia (?) where they didn't take in enough electrolytes with their drinking. I was using Honey Stingers (gel) because I thought that "natural" would be better than all those artificial gels. At one of the reststops they had Hammer gel and I thought, what the heck, I'll give it a try 'cause I'm flagging. WHOA! What a boost! So I'm converted to better living through chemistry, I guess!

My ride partner, Connie, felt really bad during the hottest part of Saturday and we could only go about five miles before she got extremely flushed and had to stop under some shade, dousing herself with water. Our average speed was "turtle" but we made it to the end - as it slowly cooled off she started feeling better. Later that night, she figured out it was lack of salt - she's an extremely salty sweat-er and she was using a new sports powder that didn't have as much salt in it. When she switched to Powerade, she felt much better and we rode MUCH faster on Sunday without any trouble. I'd like to know the chemistry behind the body's cooling mechanism and how sodium is important - it was like she couldn't sweat when she got so overheated. Maybe close to heatstroke? I don't know.

Lots of fun people to chat with on the road - lots of purty, purty boys (I'm only appreciating them as works of art - really!) lots of bikes to lust after (don't tell my bike!). One guy was riding an Orbea, the Euskadel orange and blue version that was so cool. Lots of really cute jerseys. I rode with long sleeves for sun protection and they actually weren't that much hotter - it felt good to not have the sun beating down on my forearms all day long.

We had one flat to fix and it was a rear tire on Connie's bike. My bike had a loose headset (I felt a shimmy right from the start of the ride) but the wrench boys at one of the reststops fixed me up. It's amazing what will shake loose on those farm roads.

Yes, I'll do it again! Why was I so worried I wouldn't make it? The MS folks took such good care of us!