Today’s ride was dedicated to Reno Veskrna. Yesterday when we stopped by the farm with all of the adorable animals and kind family, we conducted a portrait and learned about Reno. He passed away from lung cancer due to the radiation treatment he had received during previous battle with cancer. Hearing about Reno was very moving because he was about our age, and it hits very close to home when that is the case. Hearing about his life through his sister Renae was so inspiring!
Today’s day was average in length, about 72 miles. We had some headwinds in the beginning of the day which slowed us down a little bit, but then the wind died down and made for an awesome day! At one of our rest stops, we ran into ANOTHER wonderful family farm that had an alpaca, camel, mini horses, kittens, puppies!!!!, sheep, and cattle. Most of the team is from Chicago or the suburbs, so it was extra cool to experience a unique and diverse farm like that.
We got to the stayover in good time, and got to shower and do laundry before the dinner that was provided for us by the church we are staying at, the First United Methodist Church. We had some amazing homemade food and dessert, and then got to go out on a pontoon boat on the Missouri river!!!! We spend a couple solid hours laughing and enjoying the sunset, it was so beautiful and so much fun! Big thanks to Guy & Jay for organizing that adventure for the team.
The rider shout-out goes to Jonathan! Every morning, Jon packs up the van, which is no easy task because the van contains everything we own – and that is a lot of stuff. Then, as soon as we get to the stayover, we have to unpack everything. Jonathan is always the first one to help unpack the van even though it was his job all morning to pack it up. It is such a huge help each and every day and makes the days so much better!