Summer Update (It's All Amber's Fault!)

Friends make the miles fly by.

I was planning to ride half of one day of Biking Across Kansas. I figured I couldn't pass it by since the route this year went right through my home town. Even right past some of our farm ground! It was a no-brainer. But the full day was scheduled to be an 80 mile ride with much of the later miles over a busy highway with no shoulders and lots of hills. This chick doesn't do hills.

My nephew Eric M. from across the state has started riding and decided to do this ride as a bucket list challenge. He played football in college as an offensive linemen so he's a boy with some size. He is also very strong so I knew he would leave me in the dust. It's a good thing my friend Amber M. was willing to ride along with me to keep me company. The plan was to meet early Sunday morning at the start and ride the 28 miles to my town and then call it a day. But it was a beautiful day with a slight tailwind and Amber kept saying, "let's keep going!" So we did.

Amber has been a wonderful friend from almost the first race I ever ran. Somehow we connected and kept seeing each other at the races. Then I found out that she works for an educational cooperative that services the school I work in. Who knew? I'll never forget the day I first saw her in my building. The halls were filled with students and when Amber saw me she said "Hey, you sure look different with your clothes on." We had a good laugh about that and we all look different with our civilian clothes on.

Had to stop for a hug from Claudia.

We took off at first light and soon Eric was a speck in the distance ahead of us. I kept reminding Amber that we were on a tour, not a race. So we took our time and talked and talked and peddled away the miles. We went past our farm and we shared notes about farm life (Amber's husband is a farmer too). As we passed near our good friend Dan K.s house he came out to meet us. He was watching all the bikes go down Main Street and wishing he could join us. Maybe someday Dan!

A few more miles took us by Claudia B.s house and she and her husband were sitting on lawn chairs on the side of the road watching for us. Can you believe it! All my activities have brought so many people into my life that I can't imagine not knowing. The circle of friends just keep getting bigger and bigger and everyone of them is a positive influence on my life.

We pulled into my home town and it was still pretty early in the day so Amber said, "Let's keep going." I called my hubby to make sure he could pick us up along the road if we went farther then planned. I could almost see him shaking his head at our crazy ideas and agreed to pick us up when we got tired.

Eric and his favorite Aunt!

Heading out of town was like heading into uncharted territory. I've driven this road a thousand times but never ridden it on my bike. But the tailwind kept pushing us and we kept talking and laughing, and the miles just flew by. Eventually we got to a rest stop and checked our mileage. Amber's previous long distance ride was 35 miles. We were way beyond that and she was smiling from ear to ear. "Let's keep going!" OK Amber, whatever you say. I did decide to put a halt to our ride at the next little town because it was starting to get warm and, honestly, I was only planning a 28 - 30 mile ride. My saddle was not happy and I'm a wimp. But when we finally stopped at the next SAG stop we had 56.8 miles on our bikes. A record for Amber and a pretty wonderful day out on the road.

Hubby picked us up and we talked and laughed all the way back to the starting point and dropped
Amber back at her pickup. And somewhere during that day I agreed to do the Rock-n-Roll 1/2 Marathon in Las Vegas in November. I'm still not sure how that happened, but when Amber says "Let's keep going" apparently we keep going!

My nephew Eric managed the 80 miles and then some to make it an official century ride for him. Amber set a new distance record on her bike. And I found a new goal to work toward and have another adventure on the horizon. What can I say. It's all Amber's fault!

Amber and I sweeping the medals in the "Masters" division at a race in 2010.