Oh before I start... there is NO new bike! I thought it would be an early April Fools joke but no one reads the comments posted so it was a bust. I will have a bike out testing it Tuesday night on the club ride.

The rains ended Saturday afternoon so I got a nice 32 miles in but the rain brought out every bug in Arkansas to the river. I could not ride hard at all because the minute you open your mouth you'd get some tasty all natural protein. There were times when I would go through swarms of bugs.

Ok, yes I rode all day (well, after early services) and I ended with 106 miles at 15.3 average. I felt really good the whole day until the very end and I took a big drink of some left over sports drink that was hot in one of my water bottles and about 15 minutes later my tummy went south. I forgot about hot sports drinks. Ugh!I ran into Rebecca Irons out early and rode with her a little. Chris was with the team in NW Ark for the race. Fast Girls, Slow Guys did well it sounds like with fast girl Jo doing some smoking in the Ozarks! Way to go Jo baby! Wooooo! Brian was in the big crash but is fine. Bruised up a bit as is Loren (?) Jenny's daughter. Way to rock the race FGSG team!

Oops, got off subject... so I rode with half a dozen different folks today. It was really good to get out and see if the legs could handle the 100. They did great but the tummy incident really ticked me off as I was going to ride 4 more hours to sunset.My first very brief stop was at the offices of Safe Foods (http://www.safefoods.net/). It's the offices where my coach works. When you go to the website and the different screen change then when you see the smiling guy with the suit that has the title of Legal Guru then that's my coach. Don't let the smile fool you because if you have him for a coach he can "motivate" the snot out of you. Ok, honestly, he is an awesome coach!

My second stop of the day was while I was riding solo early and stopped at the state capitol. I never get close up to the place even though I drive in front of it every morning. I took a close look at the front of the capitol which is really a work of art then I rode over to the side and stopped at an memorial that I really wasn't expecting to have an effect on me but came very close to bringing tears to my eyes. The Little Rock Nine. This is a memorial to the first nine black students that went to Central High in 1957. It was a ... well, there really aren't words to describe it. It was a lesson, turning point, blessing, and hell all at the same time. Each of the nine have a plate with a quote. As I read the one from Ernest Green I stopped and looked beyond the trees to see the children's hospital. At that very moment it became very clear why I will ride for those kids. The quote is, "We wanted to widen the options for ourselves and more for our children." I want the kids to have a better shot at hearing technology as a child then I did. I want them to hear and to succeed. Ernest Green, thank you!

Later I caught up with some others and rode out the rest of the day with them until the end when I dropped off after spotting my niece Shannon on her way to a soccer game. This was a guy out enjoying the river and super spring afternoon.

All in all it has been a great weekend!
Geo.