Murphysboro, IL —> Shawneetown, IL, unknown mileage (I was driving)
Cole:
Today was my driving day again, so after waking up early, scrambling to pack up the car, and getting the bikers on the road, I had about an hour and a half to kill before it was time to drive to the next stop. I looked for a coffee shop to surprise our team coffee drinkers, Asia and Anna, but everything in town was closed for Sunday. I drove 20 miles to meet the bikers at our first stop instead, then find a shady spot to relax by a lake (for about 5 minutes). I had decided to do my best to use the day as a rare opportunity to relax and recover before more biking and teaching coming up, so I wasn’t stressing much about where to next meet the splintered group of riders, or otherwise using my brain for much of anything. I pulled into a nice spot 20 more miles down the road to meet the group, then realized I had time to catch Travis, who had gone ahead without stopping, and make it back to this spot before the rest of the riders arrived. I started to pull out of the spot to catch Travis when suddenly, disaster struck. The details aren’t necessary, but the next 20 minutes involved frantically unloading every piece of gear from the car, redistributing some of it onto the driver’s side hood for weighting, and some very helpful Illinois residents with their ATV. After saving the car, the Illinoians assured me that plenty of people who park in that spot make the same mistake I had, but I still felt like the worlds worst driver. Yikes.
Still a bit on edge, I continued down the road towards Travis, only to realize that I no longer had time to catch him before the rest of the team arrived. I turned around to head back to my spot—then realized that Sean had already passed it, while the rest of the team hadn’t made it there yet and wouldn’t want to ride all the way to Sean for their break. What a day. More (avoidable) mistakes ensued before I finally learned one crucial lesson: don’t turn your brain off on your drive day! I gave up on relaxing and recovering, switched my brain back on, and managed not to mess anything up too badly for the rest of the day. Sometimes, its a lot easier to bike 100 miles than to drive 50.