Day 22: Abilene to Ranger

That’s The Team Lemon Style
We were awakened by lights first, at 5:40am.  Then at 6:00am there was an announcement and music, to try and get those of us sleeping in the gym or the roller-skating rink up.  I am part of team Lemon, and we were on support for the day.  We had planned on getting everyone up at 6:45am and on the road by 7:45am, but the First Baptist Church had other plans and eager people outside waiting to get in and use the facilities.  So we got an earlier start, but the church did have complimentary coffee to complement our early start.  In the end though, we did just barely make out goal of getting everyone on the road by 7:45.  That’s the Team Lemon style.

I was in the water stop/lunch van for the day, which I hadn’t done before, which gave me the opportunity for a number of photos of the group during the day.  After heading out of Abilene, we caught up with Jess at a stoplight, where Bryce and I surprised her by pulling up next to her and blasting Amy Grant’s “O Come All Ye Faithful”.

We continued on to set up our water stop and had some last minute route changes that Lauren orchestrated for us.  This involved her personally visiting the D.O.T., which none of us were the least surprised by her thoroughness and skill in last minute route planning.  We raced on to set up the lunch for the team, which I like doing because you get to see the whole team during the day.

Maggie, Jen, Roshan & Katie speeding along

Adam, Jeff & Tim cruising by

Pete, stripping off his arm warmers

Justin, drafting the van at 40 mph for a freakishly long time

I think the group enjoyed the end of their ride to Ranger.  I know Katie had her group stop a court where a famous toad was trapped in the basement for 28 years without food and water.  I’m still not sure quite how this fact was uncovered.  How do you know a toad is 28 years old?
Once in Ranger, Heidi took care of dinner for us, and managed to cook up two Indian dishes in about 20 minutes.   She also baked some naan, which she actually started preparing while driving sweep in the van.  After dinner, our group took advantage of the many diversions the First Baptist Church had to offer – a pool table, a ping pong table, and karaoke.  I’m sorry to say that I missed karaoke, but I did hear that the ad libbed lyrics were better than the originals.  After today it’s time for a good night’s sleep before a century ride to Ft. Worth.

-Jody