Day 61-Morehead KY to Huntington WV

It was an early morning today, 5am wake up so we could make it to our arrival at the Huntington city hall. It was scheduled as a 75 mile day but in the morning the more accurate estimate was 67 miles so not too bad if a ride at all. The morning was rocky for me, I was getting ready out front and set my Chacos on the roof of Matt's van while I switched lenses for my sunglasses, ended up forgetting them there when I went to go eat breakfast, after that the van left with my chacos on the roof. Right before we left I remembered they were still on the roof so I was telling everyone to look for them on the road, Matt's van is always the first crew stop so he was about 8 miles up and when we got there he had found them, still sitting on the roof where I left them, I was very lucky. To add to it, about a mile in I looked down and realized I didn't have my bike computer on my bars and didn't know where it went, last I saw it was in my bike shoe walking down to the vans, luckily I found it at the end if the day in the luggage van, also very lucky.
I rode with Evan and Dean, the guys I did the pre JOH ride with, I realized last night that I don't think we have done a pace line with the three of us since thay ride so it was fun to ride with them on the bike again, Dean and Evan are hilarious we were having so mich fun that even though we stopped to deal with my shoe situation and we started as the second to last pace line we ended up passing everyone in 20 miles and not realizing it until mile 40. I was sticking with my same method, ride the whole day in the big ring and ride hard and fast, I was making some hills harder by staying on a high gear too, it was a blast, I was shooting up hills again and Evan and Dean were following right behind for most or I was chasing Evan up them. Dean has become an even better rider too, he may not want to ride as hard as we did today but he is definitely capable of it so it was awesome to push him to ride that hard. It was pretty much the same terrain, just rolling hills and flats with some more fun curvey downhills.

Finally we get to our stage up to meet up with the police escort, this one was awesome, 5 miles and no stops, blew through every light it was fun. We had an arrival at city hall to be greeted by lots of press and organizers for our visit. After that we got back on the bike for another police escort to lodging which was another 5+ miles and the high school we are staying at is at the top of a hige hill which I thought was funny and enjoyable, we never get to climb hills with the whole team and in a double pace line with a police escort, everyone was scattered all over, couldn't hold the double line, but we were joking around the whole time, it was great. The police made it even beetter, when we got to the parking lot at the top a couple of them parked their bikes and let us hop on and take pictures, I have been waiting for one of the police escorts to offer us this, it was so cool despite burning my leg on the pipes, totally worth it. We had a sponsor bring us lunch at lodging so we could relax for a while. A van full and I made a bike shop run, I needed to get my derailleur looked at and found out I needed a new chain, my old one was super stretched out which was causing my problems. After we got back we headed right back out to our friendship visit with Mountain State Center for Independent Living which helps people with disabilities live independently and find jobs in the community, we met the mayor there who proclaimed today Push America Day. It was one of the best dinners we have had, it was breakfast for dinner, eggs, biscuits, bacon, sausage, muffins, everything, so delicious. I sat at a table with Vincent who is quite the talker, he is a wrestler and from the sound of it a really good one toozhe has won a lot of titles, he was really fun and took lots of pictures of us. He was also telling us about the local team in Huntington too and the rivalries. Dinner was a blast and on the way back we drove through the Marshall University and checked out the football Memorial.

When we got back to the high school I see Matt cleaning my bike, he said he would clean it after I let him use it for the ride along but I wasn't sure if he actually was so that was a great surprise and he knows a good amount about bikes so he really got a good deep clean and I am excited to see how it rides tomorrow. Spent the rest of the evening hanging out, watched more band of brothers.

Only a 45 mile ride tomorrow to Charleston WV, crazy short and another arrival too. Should be fun as always.