At this point, I don’t remember any of the drives at night. We had Dallas help drive, Rivers, the Wingmen, and whoever else tagged along helped drive. This made all of these nighttime drives obsolete from my memory.
The swim in Iowa was quaint. It was in an outdoor pool, was quiet, and a smaller group. I remember just relaxing this morning. I did swim, but it just felt more chill. It must be because the ‘audience’ was smaller. I remember Dallas sitting poolside, just chillin’ and enjoying the quiet scene. I was informed that there was a nice breakfast, so I showered and got myself ready for the day.
The kids emerged from the RV, and were excited to see the bacon… What is it about bacon?!!?! People love it. I do not, so I don’t get the obsession, but the obsession is real! I mean, Jim Gaffigan can tell you all about it!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaK9bjLy3v4
We all sat down together and enjoyed breakfast together. This breakfast felt just like the swim, it was calm and relaxing. We drove the RV to a school (high school I think) and parked it there for the day. But before we parked it, Casey Robles drove it in circles, over, and over, and over. You thought after a few that he would stop, well surprise! We are talking a solid 5 minutes of circles in the parking lot. The bikers stared at us, and I assume this is what they were thinking, “This guy is an idiot!” We were dying laughing!
Forgive me for not remembering which state, whoever you were, you can pipe in and remind me, you made us a mix CD for us to listen to. We hadn’t thought of listening to music the entire time we traveled. Mostly this was due to the fact that the driving happened at night. This eventually led to headphones. When we were gifted this CD (late in the journey, with only 10-12 states to go), we were all amused that we hadn’t thought of listening to music, especially with these shorter drives in the east that weren’t ‘through the night’ like the earlier states.
We rocked out to this CD, every second we could! There were songs like a Brady Bunch song, then some Johnny Cash, “I’ve been everywhere…”, and our one top 40, “Baby I’m worth it.” There were others as well. We loved this, and it was blasting loud and clear as Casey spun his circles in this parking lot.
The bikers got going on the bikes, and we chilled for a bit in the RV.
I remember Dallas and Tommy Rivers Puzey in there with me, then the Wingmen showed up a bit later, after making sure James was well on his way. We kind of got organized in the RV, but there wasn’t too much to do since I had gutted it the day before. We relaxed (seemed to be the mood for the day), and enjoyed Casey shouting hilarious things to the bike group as they came through.
I texted Liz to see what her plan was for the day. She was at her hotel about 20 minutes away, and was basically up to doing anything we wanted to do. We realized there wasn’t really that much to do (sorry Iowa), so we decided to go swimming at Liz’s hotel. We drove over there and the kids enjoyed swimming with Connor for as long as we could. They then all showered in her room, and we went for lunch…Mexican food.
Do I need to reemphasize how much I love Mexican food? Okay, I will leave it alone. It was delicious! We put the kids at one table, and the adults at another. Dallas Makin and Liz are friends as well, so we visited and enjoyed the break.
Iowa was hot…so hot! We went back to the RV, and worried about the heat! These are the moments that I thought about James. We were hot, sitting in an air conditioned car, poor James was out in the sun, doing his thing. Later in the day, we got lucky; this school happened to be where they plugged in the school buses. We were able to drive the RV back, and plug it in so we didn’t need our generator to work. Let’s just say, we all said a prayer of thanks!!!!
It was time for the 5k, we set up the shirts and went out to see James speak to the group. I put a shirt on the ground, sat down and relaxed (again!). I visited with Liz and Connor before they had to take off. The 5k was a smaller group, but just as excited and enthusiastic as any other state! There was even a girl that was so star struck she almost died! She was so flattered that James was willing to take a picture with her; we are talking squealing and jumping up and down with excitement!
Liz and Connor left to go home. It was so awesome to have them out there with us!!! We went across the street to a gas station to try to find something for dinner (there was nothing else, anywhere). I think I got boxes of cereal, milk for the kids, and of course, milk for Casey! I grabbed some pretzels, nuts and other snacky foods, figuring people would be hungry later in the evening.
Back at the RV, everyone was basking in the air conditioning. It had been several days since we had had decent AC. Days doesn’t sound very long, but if I were to say several STATES, it emphasizes the desire for cool air. The night grew later, the kids ran around outside, enjoying the cooler evening air. Together we celebrated #43 being on the cusp of another day done!
