It was an interesting day of sweep. The day as usual started off early in the morning at 5am to watch the sun rise over the lake. We got to have an exciting change to our morning routine: the taking down of our tents. I think we all passed the test, and all of our tents fit (were shoved) back in their little green totes. Then it was on the road again with John Benson, Woody the bike shop owner, and some other local riders. The ride started off with a three mile downhill: it was glorious. Because we were following the locals we were able to successfully navigate the maze of back roads. It was a good thing that we were not trying to negotiate them by ourselves because most of them were unmarked. I saw my first ever field of cotton. I am from Maine, and cotton does not like the cold. There was even a man on horse back checking up on his field. Because we were taking back roads we were able to ride as a pack of 30 stopping to regroup at each turn. This section of our ride was a favorite of the week for many of the riders.


Once in Winchester some of the riders continued on, hoping beat the heat. Other stopped at Woody’s Bicycle Shop and San Miguel Coffee Company to stock up on necessities for our bodies and our bikes such as coffee, spare tubes, white chocolate and raspberry scones, bright orange Woody cycling jerseys, and horns that go awoooga. You know, all the things that one needs to bike 80 miles.


Though we had lost our guides, we kept on the back roads until our lunch stop at mile 40. I learned from a roadside sign that we were quite near where Jack Daniel’s Whiskey is distilled. Lunch was in a gas station parking lot. We had managed to get rather far behind so we decided to see if we could catch up. We were flying along much faster than any pace I could have held at the beginning of the trip. I was proud, and even though it was hot and there were long hills, I was having a great time. Unfortunately, me, my bike, and a car decided to have a fight. I won, but the fork of my bike and the car lost. An oncoming car took a left in front of me. I did not have enough time to stop or swerve out of the way, and T-boned it. I was very lucky and survived the accident with a small cut on my chin and a two inch bruise on my thigh. The driver of the car was much more shaken up then I was. My bike’s steel fork was sadly bent, but Surly is going to replace it for me. Thank you very much to the work of West Chiles, and John Fleck at Surly. I had to ride the last 20 miles in the van. My fellow sweep partner Daven sadly also had to ride in the van until we caught up with the last rider who then got reassigned as his new sweep partner. As I rode in the fan up some very big hills I had complete respect for my fellow riders, because the hills looked long and hot. A mean way for the last 20 miles of an 80 mile day.


We got hooked up in Pulaski by Dan the Mayor. He got us suites at Martin Methodist Community College. They were pretty sweet with real beds, washer and driers, and AC. Once we were showered we headed over to the Mayor’s house. He had a pool and fed us amazing food. The mayor joined some of our riders cannonballing some of the innocent bystanders on the side of the pool. They welcomed us with “enough food to feed an army.” We did not actually manage to devour it all, and had leftover to supplement our lunches of PB and J. There were many people from the community there who shared the evening with us. I personally cannot thank this group of people enough. Many of them came up to make sure that I was ok after my accident. I even got a much needed “mamma hug” to speed along the mental recovery. Through their combined efforts I did not have to ride in the van until Memphis, to the next bicycle shop with a fork that will fit my bike. I would like thank West and Terry for arranging to get me a new fork. I also was loaned a bike from John and Michelle under the condition that I was not allowed to run it into any cars. Also thanks to John and Michelle Hunt, I got to upgrade and ride Lightspeed titanium bike for two days. It was a very nice ride, but I was a little terrified of breaking it during the ride. I watched very carefully for cars and other road side dangers and had no more incidents.


Overall, it was a very eventful sweep day, and I was happy to fall asleep that night in a real bed.


Suzanne