deCycles Southeast America 2014
Journal Entry
Day 21 ... Friday, July 11

Start: London, KY

End: Lexington, KY

Distance: 89-miles.  

Terrain: Easy rolling hills.

Climate: Sunny, low 90s.  No wind.  Gorgeous countryside.

There are reasons for everything.  The fresh new gym at the church was named after the Grier family.  It's a gripping story.  The church had an active family with a son who loved and aspired to play basketball.  After all, this is Wildcat country.  But the son was often turned away from playing basketball in other church gyms because he wasn't a member.  With limited facilities, the son was unable to improve his skills.  Unfortunately, his brother fell wayward and got into drugs.  One day, the wayward son got in a fight with his parents over purchasing a gun.  Things got heated, shots rang out, and the drugged up son shot his dad four times, shot and killed his sister and the brother who loved basketball.  He then went out and killed himself.  The parents survived and buried all of their children in this sudden twist of fate.  Because of this tragedy, the parents wanted all donations to go to the church to build a gym that would be open to anyone to play basketball or anything else.  This is how the deCycles were allowed and welcomed to stay in this beautiful facility overnight.  The church treated us like royalty.  We are forever grateful.  There are reasons for everything.

The route today was gorgeous.  Nice roads, rolly-polly hills, and fast pacelines ... especially the Goodwrench team.  These are the guys who fix our bikes and they know how to hammer down the road.  They would start out last and fly down the road passing all the groups.  It was the kind of road conditions that allowed high speed pacelines.  We covered 65-miles very quickly.  The third rest stop of the day was on Boone Cave Road, a property with beautiful hiking trails, a zoo, and an old church.  It is owned by Robin "Mapman" Houze's brother-in-law.  Bob and Trudy Blandford hosted the entire group offering lemonade, watermelons, pineapple, and other goodies.  We sang a bunch of songs in the old church.  It was an unusual rest stop and very relaxing for a couple of hours.  The riding was fairly easy the past two days.

There have been challenges though.  Usually when I arrive at a rest stop, I am usually overwhelmed with requests to assess anything from a hangnail to a migraine.  Today, at the first rest stop, one female rider needed her shoulder diagnosed and treated after a fall.  Another female rider was dizzy.  A third female rider couldn't breathe.  A fourth female rider needed her neck adjusted to keep her left hand from tremors.  A fifth female rider refused to ride her bike because of a minor injury the previous day.  A male rider complained of burning back in his throat.  Another rider lost something.  Another male rider needed discipline due to unsafe riding practices.  Cricket and I hardly ever have a rest stop without some sort of crisis.  For us, the easiest thing is the biking.  Crowd control off the road is the major battle.

The deCycles were beneficiaries of a very generous fellow rider today.  Doug Snow from Indianapolis was the last adult-rider accepted on the roster.  He actually filled in for someone who canceled their spot before the trip.  Doug accompanied the group from Key West to Charleston but had to cut it short to return to the real world for work.  So he offered to take the entire group out for supper.  So in Lexington, we visited GattiTown, an all you eat stuff your gut joint.  And that is what we did.  Thanks so much, Doug Snow.  You won their hearts through their stomach.

We then did a 5-mile escort to downtown Lexington.  The double file escort is a spectacle, especially when meandering through downtown cities.  Hundreds of onlookers wonder what the heck is going on.  We can really draw attention.  We are staying at Broadway Christian Church, a vibrant urban inner city church who hosted deCycles in 2003 and 2007.  It's great to be back at a church that welcomes us year after year. The student-riders are very fortunate to have churches host us along the way.  It is actually mind-boggling.  Hopefully the riders appreciate their benefactors rather than just expecting it.  Cricket is the one who gets that whole process started.  Today she pulled her group down the road.  She is enjoying being back on the bike after having to serve as the food-mommie last year since we were short on support vehicle drivers.

Tomorrow we pedal through the most famous horse farms in the world.  It will be a beautiful ride.  But we still have to pay attention and not let down.  We still have nearly 200-miles to go and things can turn in an instant.  STAY ON FOCUS is our mantra.

Images
(click to expand)