Cue sheets are optional.

I was struggling at reading my cue sheet today, but it wasn't too bad. I turned my 109 mile day into 112 miles.

Today was a 5:30am breakfast, but it was at the school's cafeteria, which made it easier for us. The cue sheet looked really scary since it was 3 pages, but the last page only had like 2 lines of text. What a waste.

The beginning of the ride consisted of cracked road and narrow shoulders. Struggle. But it was actually kind of nice because we ended up riding more or less as a big group to the first check point. We were riding through a cloud and into the sun in the beginning, so it made it rather hard to see. It's now safe to say that I survived. I started singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall, but it got a little annoying after a while. Well, maybe really annoying. Clearly I'm good at making new friends.

The first check point had snacks provided by a Big Ride alum- donuts, coffee, watermelon, banana muffins, grapes, all the good stuff. The bond that the Big Ride creates among all the riders is awesome.

I headed out with Chacko and missed a turn. We passed some construction workers, and we yelled to them to see if other riders had come this way. They waved in the direction we were going, so we thought we might still be on route. But then we his a busy street that was not anywhere on the cue sheet. We turned around and saw Amy, Deidre, and Sam turn onto the correct street that we missed. Just FYI- Chacko doesn't addy a cue sheet, so he was relying on me. Poor life choice.

I ended up just riding by myself in my drops because the winds were not in my favor. They were not as bad as yesterday, but they still were not great. The lunch stop was around mile 47, and we still had cold cuts left. :).

The next check point was at mile 62 because there is supposed to be an awesome bakery. Unfortunately it has closed down, but Isang, Chacko, and I found a pizza place with ice cream. Isang and I got root beer floats, and Chacko got a chocolate milkshake. These are becoming typical orders. The pizza place was pretty neat because it was basically the town's hang out. We found the coolest place in town!

The next stretch was pretty long and a lot of the same...corn. We are in Amish country, so it was cool to see the horse and buggies going down the road. They also all have their laundry out to dry. I stopped in a health foods store to use their bathroom and to look for a pin. I knew it was a long shot, but it couldn't hurt. They didn't have a pin, but they gave me a pen. My collection has become pins, a patch, and a pen!

I don't know what my deal was today, but I always had to go to the bathroom. The check point around mile 85 was very open, so I opted to not pee there. There was a town less than 10 miles away according to the cue sheet, so I figured I could wait until then. I didn't want to pee in a front yard or in corn. On the way, a girl yelled out to ask if I knew when the bike tour was. I stopped to hear her question, and I told that I didn't know and that I was with a ride across America. Stopping made me realize how badly I had to pee, so I asked how much farther up the next town was. My odometer was off due to my little detour in the morning. It was only a couple miles, but a few miles can be a lot of time on the bike. She didn't know, but she offered to let me use the bathroom in the house.

To be continued...
(We crossed into EST, so we've lost an hour. Struggle.)