kellita the señorita the ibby dibby dow: Can I touch your fat pads?

Today was my day to sweep it up with Beth. (Sweep for those of you that don't know are the last 2 riders of the group who make sure that everyone gets in to the host ok. We stop if you're having any problems and for moral support and dance parties and such).

Today was also hilly. It was a tough second day back on the bike, and my legs were like "I thought we haven't been doing anything, what the f is this?" We stopped quite a few times before getting to lunch, which if I'm honest, which I have no reason not to be, took FOREVER. Though when we stopped for Kira's flat, we did see a man in a truck driving backwards down the railroad tracks (with working trains) with his reverse beeper on. That was worth seeing.

When we got to lunch there was a major offensive on Beth with about 30 other people (and when I say about, I mean 30 because it was the entire rest of our team). They "cheered" us into lunch, and then launched water balloons at Beth, with the goal of not hitting me, which was achieved, and I was happy. It was hysterical, and she got SOAKED. I took a nap.

Back on the road, we carried each other through with engrossing conversation, until we could see St. Paul in the distance. (Yes! Another state!) We caught up with Mark and Kira and rode the glorious bike paths into the city. At one point we stopped at a stop light, and Beth and I were rejoicing at how close we were to our final destination when we overheard Kira simply stating, "Oh No". We looked up, thinking we were looking at a wall. But of course, it's not a wall, but the hill we must climb to finish the ride. Beth said she was going to walk, and I told her to lock it up. We would make it up the hill. So I rode behind her reminding her that we eat hills like this for breakfast. Then we eat hills for lunch and then we climb the shit out of them. It sounded ridiculous as I was huffing and puffing up this hill myself. But we made it and the 4 of us hi-fived at the top. Then the never-ending ride finally ended, and we were at the host.

We have another home stay in the twin cities. Side note here: I just understood for the first time today why they call these the Twin Cities. I guess it took biking to one, through it, then seeing the next for me to fully get it. This time the 4 of us leaders are staying at one house, and the host is going out of town. It's great because we get some leader time to do some leader stuff. Don't we sound important? The house we're staying in is beautiful, and we had fish tacos for dinner. Luxury. It's like being a grown up in our own space again. But not.