A downpour started around 6:30 this morning right as we were about to head out, so we spent our first few miles soaking wet as we rode through the pouring rain. Despite the weather, we got to ride through University of Illinois and see a bit of the campus, pictured below. Also picture below featuring Emily's stylish rain vest, complete with zip off sleeves and a hole for your ponytail (she models in her spare time on the 4K). Luckily that storm passed quickly and it turned into a beautiful day. Our route took us through tons of back country roads in the middle of nowhere so we were able to ride stress-free with the road to ourselves. We took lots of fun pictures throwing up the Jamie love sign and holding hands on the open road! At one point when we stopped to fix a flat, we found the most adorable cat in the cornfields. Kelsey got to hold her for a while and she was so sweet!
That day for lunch, an amazing family let us use their yard as well as their bathroom and pool during our stop. They had chickens and ducks running around their yard as well as two adorable dogs and a shed full of show rabbits. Some of my teammates even jumped in their pool to cool off! So we all got a little taste of what it's like to live in farm country. :)
Today marks a week since we lost Jamie, so we thought it would be fitting to have a moment of silence for her during our ride. All of the groups met up around 3:30 to come together for her. We were surrounded my corn fields and the setting was beautiful. We all hung up our helmets on a tree (which ended up looking pretty cool) and came together for a few minutes. It was sad but peaceful, and really special to come together as a full team during the ride. We were reminded of how much we miss Jamie, but how amazing it is that we are continuing this ride for her.
We got back on our bikes to finish out the 91.5 miles for that day - the farthest I've ever biked thus far! Our host that night was the Adventure church in Bradley, IL (my dad was really excited about this since his name is Bradley!). The church provided us with a really nice dinner, and afterwards a group of us decided to go to the movies to see A Fault in Our Stars. The movie was good (but I've heard it's not as good as the book) and was really relevant to the cause that we are riding for. It was fun to do something a little different and have a 'movie night' with the team. Tomorrow we are heading to Chicago (woo!) and I am on food van duty for the first time. Windy City here we come!