#drivingdrivingdriving

Lunch came at the perfect time to boost morale and get people re-motivated. Lunch is a great time on the 4K because you get to see everyone, relax for a bit, and recharge. We would typically try to have lunch over half-way through the mileage for the day so it was always less to the host. It is a huge help mentally and makes you feel pretty good about the ride having that in mind.

Rachel and I headed out soon to help Dana who had broken a nipple (on my tire...oops) and needed some parts in the van. We found their group by this awesome scrap yard/mechanic shop. The people there were really nice and actually had a wolf as a pet. How cool! The wolf was all white and really sweet so I chilled with the dog a bunch while things were being fixed. Two groups were chilling there and Dana's group went to leave but Elli got a flat tire so she changed that but while she was, the second group tried to leave. No joke, they also got a flat, this time it was Eric's I think. It was ridiculous but eventually they got going. For the next little while, our groups were mixed up with some of the T-4K'ers and it was funny. Some groups really enjoyed them but other groups did not like them and a little competitive spirit came out. The next water stop was very fast because riders wanted to continue moving with the Texas groups and our groups covered some decent miles in no time. We had to go back to support one group who was falling a little behind and Matt decided to jump in the van.

Dana's tire was destroyed again so we went to meet up with her group. We ended up shuttling their group because it was getting late and we were definitely going to have to shuttle everyone at some point so this made it much easier for our van duties. Thus, we grabbed that group of Mike, Elli, Kev, Dana, and Erin and went to the host. Rachel wasn't feeling well so we unloaded everything and Matt and I returned to begin shuttling the rest. The host van was not incredibly helpful today because they had to go to the airport to pick up people and instead of going after the groups had all been secured, went right at the end of the day when we had to grab everyone. It was kind of annoying but everyone has different ways of doing things and I just didn't happen to agree with what they decided. But I managed to convince them to give us the rack for the back of the van so we would be able to grab the rest of the people in one trip. And we did!

We picked up the very last group from a Dairy Queen in south Minneapolis where they were having a dance party in the middle of the parking lot. What goofballs. We loaded up and headed to Eric's relative's house. Eric had set up a dinner for us there and even though it was really late, they still wished to have us. Dinner was awesome. It was tacos again but I didn't mind at all because they were absolutely delicious. His family was so nice and I really enjoyed talking with them. There was also a ton of mail for people so we were able to grab those things as well. As much as we wanted to stay, it was late and we needed to get back to our host family in Maple Grove. It was around midnight when we returned to the host. I had been driving since 7:30 AM, over 15 hours of driving.