Last day riding....

The riding is over. As beautiful as the Trace was, scenery and riding surface, the Jackson streets were just terrible. A mountain bike with front and back shocks would have helped. But, we were on Jackson streets for only about 15 miles, and on the Trace for 385 miles, so a nice trade off.

Half of the Jackson ride got us to the capitol building for pictures and relief that it was almost over. This was a lot of riding for this early in the season with not much time to train or to get in any saddle time so our butts would be ready. But, that's part of the adventure.

The ride today was just beautiful. A nice refreshing morning, and sunny for the remainder of the day. A nice 9 person pace line that we all could manage, and I rode with Bob a lot today. A huge, beautiful reservoir was waiting for us near the end of our ride. The wind was blowing off the water against us, but not bad, and worth it to get the beautiful view.

We had a nice early chicken dinner with potato salad and beans. Some of the greedy "rush to the showers first folks" had nice cold showers, no hot water. Just part of the adventure. However, most of us found out later that in the other building they had hot water showers. My hot shower was much better, but I did enjoy hearing the loud noises coming out of the cold showers.

Then we took off for a reception at Tougaloo College, with Dr. Beverly Wade Hogan, the current President of the college leading a reception line with about 10 or 12 faculty members greeting and welcoming us. If I have the history right, when Millard Fuller was giving away all of his wealth before starting Habitat for Humanity, Tougaloo College was a recipient of a lot of that wealth, and they wanted us to come to this reception as a token of appreciation. The college continues a relationship with The Fuller Center. The history of this college dates back to about 1869 and the educating of freed slaves. It was also very involved in the civil rights movement. I would like to go back and see the campus in daylight and get a tour and history lesson about this school.

I had my nails done again this year!!! and had a lot of fun showing them off at the reception. Hailey, with me in the picture, is the nail painter/artist, and is a lot of fun to have on the bike adventure with us. It's a little hard to see the drawing of the bike on my thumbs; the fingers read: F C B A  2012, for Fuller Center Bike Adventure in 2012.

On the steps of the capitol in Jackson, MS, we're all tired, but have only about 6 more miles to bike to the church.

An early start this morning for Allen to get me to the airport for my flight home, followed by a couple of uneventful plane rides (always a good thing), and now I'm back home safe.

Next, I have to get that pesky kidney stone removed Thursday and get right back on the bike to get ready for the start of the East Coast ride on May 25.

 Just so my sweetheart knows I love her as much as I love my bike.

All photos courtesy Nathan Slabaugh

Peace