How could I resist ordering the "40-miles of Bad Road 'Nachos'" as an appetizer before returning to "brinner" cooked by team Tango? Funny thing is that the roads were actually really good today. (Elkins, WV)

Relaxin' at a water break today - this ride was probably in the top 5 most difficult rides of the trip but it was probably also one of the most beautiful. My legs are still exhausted from today and I hear there are larger mountains tomorrow. (WV)

One post ride ritual used as a recovery technique - we're not sure how much it helps though. The idea is to get rid of the lactic acid buildup in our legs... (Athens, OH)

Columbus Global Health Day! The riders introduced themselves prior to speeches by Dr. Werman and Dr. Brustein. Thanks to everyone for their great support at our home event! (The OSU College of Medicine, Columbus, OH)

Bryce leads some of the riders at the R4WH Solidarity Ride at Roll: Easton in Columbus. (Columbus, OH)

The undergrad business group, The PRactice, who has given countless hours to help with media contacts along our route. They arranged a music and ice cream event at OSU to raise money for R4WH! (The South Oval, OSU, Columbus, OH)

Look at all the smile under the overpass! We hid here during a pretty bad thunderstorm that cut our day down to 60 miles instead of 90. (Random Overpass, New Albany, Indiana)

We doubled back into TN on our way out to get this photo - we are about to enter Kentucky here! (Kentucky State Line)

A m0derately scenic water stop. This is just the kind of thing team blueberry does for the rest of the riders. (Natchez Trace, TN)

One of the creeks on the Natchez Trace, this ride was almost 40 miles on a perfect road through beautiful scenery just like this! (Natchez Trace, TN)

The drum majors, Roshan and Maggie, strut down main st. during the West TN Strawberry Festival. Strawberries were suspiciously absent at the festival - maybe due to flooding... Not sure. (Humboldt, TN)

Jenn giving instructions to the team before we ride out from Memphis. (Memphis, TN)

The team as we first arrived at Beal St. in Memphis - We had a lot of choices and our host had given us cards that bypassed cover charges at all of the venues. (Beal St., Memphis, TN)

In light of the scarcity of new blogs, I hope to cover many of the events, planned and unplanned, of the last few weeks.

We rode through Arkansas and enjoyed the hot springs of Hot Springs. The town is certainly worth visiting and spending a night in. Little Rock treated us well with the all-you-can-eat crayfish, wine, and beer. There was a heck of a storm when we were there and we saw the destruction of a tornado north of town as rode out the next day. It is certainly humbling to see the power of nature in its full force. I remember being nervous during the storm while I was in the gym the night before.

We rode through part of Mississippi on the way to Memphis, a straight stretch of highway for about 40 miles with a headwind. Not very memorable except when we turned off the highway and went through the first rolling hills we had seen in a while. *See Libby’s blog for Memphis fun on the day of arrival* The Memphis Global Health Day was a success – Lenore gave a great lecture and we had a fair number of interested medical students in attendance. After this, we spent some time in Memphis. Some people went the Civil Rights Museum and were nicely pushed out after the 5pm closing time. Travis and Brian had decided to attempt to conquer the King Kookamonga in under an hour. This is a 12lb hamburger with 6lbs of meat and 6lbs of toppings, including a bar-stool sized bun. I am sorry to report that the challenge was not completed but I must say that it was a valiant attempt! After this, we went to a Redbirds Minor League game and hung out in the grass behind left field.

*Jenn’s/Justin’s blog describes the West Tennessee Strawberry festival in Humboldt,TN*

From Milan (a short distance from the festival, a detour from our route due to flooding) we rode to Nashville on the Natchez Trace which was a top 5 best ride for those who were fortunate to not be on support that day (not me). Libby and I marked the route though and made sure to run to the sights along the trail. There were two beautiful waterfalls that were short jogs from the main road – the water flowed so smoothly over the sheet rock and fell straight down from overhangs. The road was smooth and we were fortunate to find a picturesque water stop overlooking great farmland, a few silos, and a barn in the distance. Libby and I could not have set it up better – there was a large downhill immediately following the break! We racked the bikes out of town and drove a short distance into town to meet with Vanderbilt students for dinner. With our off day the next day, many riders went out that night to some bars with great music to relax after the day on the road. We slept in for the first time in weeks the next day and then most of the riders went out into town to explore and see what the city had to offer. There was still significant flood damage and six of the riders went out to help our hosts with their volunteer effort. Jody, Lauren, Josh, Roshan, Andy, and myself first went to one house to help move a enormous pile of trash into a dumpster – the owner of that house even let a few of us drive a large tractor with a frontloader and backhoe. We finished that job and drove out to a house which had had water up to the top of the basement. We spent the next four hours tearing everything out of the basement – everything! We pulled out every wall and ceiling down to the 2x4s and cement supports. Sadly we couldn’t help more but we did what we could with limited time. We did have a lot of fun with the work and the owner of the house was very happy that we had come to help.

From Nashville, our next major stop was Louisville. We stopped at Mammoth Caves on the ride in between – they truly are enormous and would be amazing to explore for several days and take some of the longer tours. We even heard about tours that require harnesses and climbing! We stayed a fairgrounds building that night after eating with a local Lions Club – modest accommodations but warm enough and dry. The ride to Louisville was moderately hilly but the riders were lucky to have the strongest tailwind we have seen on this trip. I helped Bryce give a talk to the University of Louisville College of Medicine students as the riders were sweating it out in the hills. We finished and drove to our accommodations before all of the riders arrived. We were fortunate to be provided with a wonderful dinner by our hosts – friends of Chris’.

From Louisville most of us were excitedly anticipating Columbus but we needed to go to Cincinnati first! We rode out 20 miles the next day and got stuck in severe thunderstorms! Riders huddled under overpasses and in gas stations (see twitter note from under an overpass) to let the rain pass. After checking the radar on our handy smart phones, the support team for the day decided we would not be able to make it all the way to Aurora. We drove to a lunch spot and waited out the rain. After the red Doppler areas passed us, we were able to ride 40 miles in to the city and church we were staying at for the night. We gave our general presentation to some of the church congregation that evening after they had provided us with a delicious lasagna dinner. The ride from Aurora to Cincinnati was supposed to be an easy 35 mile jaunt the next day and we were all excited to have a pseudo-rest day. The day was restful as expected until mile 34 or so when we ran into a incredibly steep uphill all the way to the medical school – almost a perfect short day! We had journal club that night with local medical students and discussed oral rehydration therapies in developing regions of the world. After the discussion, we split into small groups for home stays with several of the medical students.

**More to follow…

~ Jeff

After getting up early to make our final preparations for the parade, we biked the 13 miles back to Humboldt, the site of the 73^rd annual Western Tennessee Strawberry Festival Parade.  We spent the next hour decorating our bikes and support van with balloons, streamers and chalk paint before traveling the 0.9 miles of the parade route.  Thousands and thousands of people lined the road, all the schools in the area let out for the day and all of the business in town close; it was a pretty impressive turnout. Biking slower than most of us probably thought possible, we swerved back and forth, passed out candy and danced on our bikes through the throngs of people.  One of our riders and best dancers, Roshan, really stole the show and had the whole crowd cheering him on as he break danced in the middle of the street to the music being played by the float in front of us.  We had a lot of fun participating in and watching the rest of the parade while enjoying all of the fried fair food we could ever dream of.  Our destination for the evening changed multiple times throughout the day due to flooding again so no route for the day was ever marked, still 4 riders took the time to get out on their bikes and put 30 or so miles in before being picked up in the support vans and being transported to our evening accommodations in Holenwald, Tennessee (We all refer to it as Hole-in-the-wall), it truly is a small town in the middle of the nowhere.

*Written by Justin, stolen by Jen

Today Ride For World Health awoke bright and early as always. The Knights of Columbus began preparations for breakfast at about 6:30am, long before our weary eyes wanted to open. You see, last night we had a little fun in Little Rock, stayed out late. Oh well.

We ate bacon, eggs, biscuits with gravy, and more in St. Theresa’s Catholic Church of Little Rock, and then made plans for a rare day off. The van departed for Little Rock’s downtown area and we arrived before 10am. Free. Free at last, with nothing to do, no place to be, no talks to give, no vans to unload. No bags to pack, no routes to mark, no food to cook. Just free!

Some of us (including myself) enjoyed a tour of the USS Razorback submarine. It sank several Japanese ships in WWII before being sold to Turkey. Now it sits in the Arkansas river in Little Rock. The tour was simply awesome in my opinion. There were about 6-8 rooms, all of which were extremely tiny and cramped. One little room was just full of missiles and little beds, all just jammed together. All of the rooms shared the distinction of being great feats of engineering, loaded with gauges and knobs, gadgets and gizmos that seemed almost too many to be real. Apparently the men set off on three month tours. The temperature in the sub was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit and men often had to sleep two to a bed. They showered every two weeks. How about that! It sure makes complaining difficult.

Other people went to Heifer's headquarters, an organization that seeks to end hunger and poverty worldwide. They offer a service where you can buy a cow or sheep or chickens for an impoverished family in third world countries. I heard a cow is $150 and a chicken is $20.

The rest of the day was spent in and out of local restaurants and drinking holes. I really enjoyed the Flying Burrito Cantina, which featured huge $1.80 tacos. We left in the late afternoon, back to the church.

All in all, it was a successful day off. Little Rock isn’t a very big town and really doesn’t offer a great variety of dining options. However, the little strip of bars and restaurants is nicely situated along the Arkansas River. Thoroughly rested and returned to church, the group cooked dinner (chicken salad) and settled down for the night.

PS: Arkansas has been a very nice surprise to many of the riders. It has been very pretty, with tree-lined back country roads and some nice hills. We have encountered our first rains of the trip, but we have managed to dodge terrible storms, which have wreaked havoc nearby. Indeed, there have been several deadly tornados in the state, all of which we have thankfully missed. Maybe staying in all of these Churches – paying homage to the Methodists, Baptists, Jews, and now the Catholics – maybe it’s paying off.

~ Travis

Considering today was a relatively short ride, around 50 miles, we finished marking by 10.30am with only one needed water break in between.

We arrived at St. Theresa's Catholic Church in Little Rock with our hosts warmly embracing us and showing us the gymnasium we would be staying at. After unloading the vans, we both decided to finally attend the long anticipated concert.

When we came to downtown Little Rock, we drove along the Arkansas river till we saw a small strip of stores, bars and food courts. It was here we began hearing music playing from an amphitheatre a few blocks down. As we entered the festival, all the tables were covered with lime green clothe with all the participants wearing lime green tshirts.

After setting up our flyers and posters, Adam and I manned the table from 12-4pm. Unfortunately, only a maximum of 10 people strolled past our table. It was here we began to realize how few actually attended the concert. We found out later that eight tornadoes had devastated the nearby counties the night before along with a high chance of rain during the concert, both of which kept most of the families away.

Dissappointed with the turnout, I packed our materials and loaded them into the van. It was around this time Adam had left to see one of his friends for the evening. While I finished packing, a lady from the adjacent booth invited me and all our riders to a Crawfish Boil hosted by her society. She stated that there would be an all you can eat crawfish, beer and wine from 5pm till 9pm.

After attending this Boil, I felt that this event more than made up for the poor turnout during the LimeAid concert. With our stomach full, some of the riders decided to hang out a little later downtown while a few such as Jeff, Lauren, Megan and myself decided to come back to the church to either watch a movie or work on our bicycles.

~ Roshan

There’s also the issue of handling on wet pavement, it takes a lot of experience to feel truly comfortable riding in the rain especially along a pretty busy highway when you are relying on 23 cm of rubber to keep you up right and safe.  Luckily we made it through the day with no major incidents.  We all arrived completely drenched before noon at the First Baptist Church of Hot Springs where we had lunch and dried off, at least for a little bit.

This afternoon we packed into the vans and hit the older downtown area where Hot Springs National Park is located, our 4th national park of the trip. The springs are formed by rainwater that is collected through pores and fractures in rock that conduct it deep into the earth, as the water travels down increasingly warmer rock heats it.  We all relaxed for a couple of hours in the thermal baths at the Quapaw House, one of the many bath houses located within the national park which have been in business since the early 1900’s. The naturally occurring pools within the house ranged in temperature from 94 – 104 degrees and were a lot of fun to hang out it in. 

We just finished another amazing dinner provided by the church, our first barbeque in barbeque country definitely lived up to its billing as the best in town as we all once again ate way too much. The storms are supposed to regain their power overnight, so we will all sleep with one eye on the radar as we’re supposed to travel to Little Rock tomorrow morning.

~Justin

We began our 75 mile journey from Magnolia, AR to Arkadelphia, AR promptly at 7:30 am.  Immediately, we knew we were in for a fun day - thanks to beautiful scenery, lovely weather, and a fantastic tailwind!  The tailwind was quite a treat following 2 weeks of Texas headwinds, and allowed us to fly over the rolling Arkansas hills… so quickly that we almost beat the lunch van to the 50 mile stop.  It also helped that all of the riders managed to have their wheels secured on the bike… myself included!  These conditions all contributed to arriving in Arkadelphia in the early afternoon, in time to catch some snoozes, patch tubes, and relax in the hot Arkansas sun.

So while today operated like most days, it was indeed much more special than the others.  And we were reminded of it very, very often.  For today is the birthday of our beloved rider, Bryce Peterson!  In honor of this joyous occasion, Team Tango planned R4WH Olympics which consisted of five events and plenty of friendly competition.  The events opened with a grueling match of wheelbarrow/straw drinking race, which was followed by an artistic rendition of a bicycle using play-doh. 

Next came the water balloon toss and the dizzy bat race.  Overall, most contenders managed to stay on their feet following 8 spins around the bat and give humorous performances.  Credit must be given to Jody Litrenta, however, for the most entertaining dizzy run as she tackled five spectators.  Nothing compared to the final event, pie eating contest, in which each team was allowed to work together to conquer an over-stuffed whip cream pie.  Keep in mind that the 18 Olympic contenders did not know each other just 30 days before… but this didn’t stop us from shoving four faces into a pie at one time.  It was certainly the culminating moment of the games when each participant walked away with a face full of whip cream.  When the results were in, it turned out that my team had barely edged out the second place team to steal the Olympic gold!!

In the end, all were winners – a quote that Pete wrote chalked on the route today.  Some just were bigger winners than others.  And Bryce was the biggest winner of all.

- Katie

Here are a few of today’s highlights:

• Katie Kidwell: After 25ish miles of a grueling struggle against the elements, she rolls into the first water stop, exhausted and wondering why.  What we then discovered was not only were her brakes rubbing against her back tire but her back wheel was not even actually on.  No wonder she felt like she had biked a century.  Well done Kidder.
• Friendly sheriff: While fixing an unfortunate flat we were visited by the local sheriff who just wanted to make sure we had all the tools we needed.  After chatting it up a little bit and telling him about R4WH he then proceeded to get on his cell phone and call 1) a woman who works for the newspaper in Stamps, AR, who we met a couple miles up the road and took our picture for the local newspaper and 2) someone at a radio station in Magnolia, AR, (where we were staying) to set up an interview for tomorrow morning.  Then he took some pictures with us and headed on his way.
• Camels in Arkansas?: Obviously.  And bisons, llamas, zebras, and zebra/donkey crosses.  In someone’s yard along the road.  See picture for any further questions.
• SAU: Southern Arkansas University.  Home of the Muleriders and some great showers. 
• Welcome to Magnolia!: The First Presbyterian Church welcomed us in style with a delicious spread, friendly faces who welcomed us into their church and community and who really took an interest in what we were doing.

Overall a really good day.  I took a little time to ride by myself and just take in the surroundings and reflect on the trip thus far.  It was great to be out enjoying nature in its finest and thinking about how lucky and proud I was to be on this trip with an awesome group of people working for such an amazing cause.  We’re about halfway through and I’m excited to see what the next half of the trip brings…

~Megan

Today was completely opposite of yesterday, and was fantastic.  Since arriving to Texas, every morning we check the wind forecast (more important to us than temperature, rain, snow, tornadoes) and it was great news at breakfast – a tailwind!  Chatter was light, the mood was lifted, my legs twitched with joy.  I stuffed one less powerbar into my back, and filled my water bottles a little less. 

Once we hit the road, it was awesome.  The morning air was chilly and with some wind assistance we were flying.  The scenery was fantastic with green rolling hills and horse farms.  My compadre, Justin, stopped to spend some quality time admiring the baby horses.  We were flying so fast that we hit our lunch stop (~50 miles) by 9:45a.  Our lunch stop was the typical boring gas station – and we even had time to talk about Schwinn’s with a local trucker. 

With all of our repetitive riding, our legs really take a hit.  We’re trying all sorts of different ways to recover:

1)      Chocolate milk – this is the best recovery drink you can buy, and its price is right.  It was studied by Indiana University, and it is legit and outcompetes the super expensive recovery drinks.  To best replenish wiped out muscles, it is best to drink within 30 minutes – which can make for quite the adventure right after a bike ride.  One half quart will give you a solid 880 calories, with 120g carbohydrates and protein. 

2)      Leg elevation: Pro – really easy way to drain the lactic acid from your legs.  Doesn’t hurt.  You can just lay there.  Con – can give yourself a heart attack if you have a ton of lactic acid flooding your heart.

3)      Streching: Pro – you look cool doing it.  Con: it takes awhile, and it hurts

4)      Beer: Pro – tastes fantastic after a long day in the saddle.  Con: doesn’t really work.

5)      Naps: Pro – really easy to do, and is favored by many people including Brian Dishong and Timmy Mitchell.  Cons – you are really sore when you wake up.  You may have nightmares.

6)      Games of kickball: Pro – really fun, and running helps flush out lactic acid.  Con – you can cramp up, and walk with a limp (may, or may not have happened to me)

7)      Updating your blog: Pro – can be a thereapeutic mental recovery if you had a rough day in the saddle. Con – doesn’t really help your legs, and you may develop carpal tunnel and poor vision.

      Quitting: Pro – works indefinitely. Con – is there one?

After utilizing #1, 2, 3, 5, 7, (8?) for recovery, we had a lot of fun in Texarkana.  We stayed in a Methodist Youth building, and it was brand new and decked out with electronics.  People set up an internet café (important for #7), played basketball, and Wii.  The support team for the day did a great job with breakfast for dinner, and during our post-gluttonous state we had a journal club.

~ Chris