Van Duty: Episode 2

Today we did about 70 miles from Omaha to Lincoln, Nebraska. I was in the water van today.

Whereas my last time in the water van was easy, today I got to experience the more stressful side of water van life.

The day started out pretty good as our host Jeff was nice enough to lead the entire team in a "supergroup" out of the city. That meant I wouldn't have to chalk, and we wouldn't have anyone getting lost. They took some nice trails, but unfortunately missed a turn because Jeff was engrossed in conversation with my teammates, and did some extra miles. Meanwhile, Chris and I scouted out the roads and chalked. However, we had to change the route on the fly because NE-50 S didn't look so good. Also, the group had done a different route than we planned, and extra miles, so we didn't know exactly when or where they'd need a water stop.

It was stressful trying to find the group, time the water stop, and find an alternate route at the same time. Luckily we found them at the perfect time (19.5 miles) and at a perfect location: a park by a lake. We did the water stop there, and then Jeff left us to fend for ourselves. We hadn't had a chance to chalk the new route, so I was worried groups would get lost leaving the stop.

**picture**

Luckily, no groups got lost, but unluckily, the road that looked so nice for the 1 mile we scouted out ended up becoming a gravel road for about 2 miles. It was not a pleasant surprise for anybody. Sarah took a spill on the slippery gravel and got scraped up, and I as water van passenger got to play medic and bandage her elbow 3 times throughout the day.

Since riders were totally off the cue sheet, they were now relying solely on me and the chalking for directions. I tried to make sure someone in each ride group had a general idea of where they were going.

Other than having to improvise with the water stop locations since it was hard to come up with exact mileage without a computer, the rest of the day went pretty smoothly. We were able to chalk everything we needed to chalk, and the riders were on a trail called MoPac trail for most of the day. While it was one of the less kept-up trails of the ones we've ridden so far, I hear it was still pretty nice. It kept riders in the shade--and on flat ground since it was a rail-trail.

Riders posing with a bicycle-riding dino named "Bike-o-saurus"

on the trail

Throughout the day I tried to keep everyone's spirits up by acting ridiculous at the water stops. Though I planned on keeping all of my 4th of July gear in hiding until the big day, two items did make a debut today: my American flag foam visor and my star/princess headband. I was also wearing a red shirt so basically I was a walking American princess. I also positioned my headband so that I had a Snooki poof.

Lunch stop right next to two giant silos. Hashtag Nebraska

At the water stops I was having way too much fun running around playing our djembe drum, blasting music for the riders, and shooting them with our Super Soaker. I went a little overboard at the lunch stop and hid in the bushes to attack riders with a water gun assault when they got off the trail riding into lunch. But I totally understand the feeling of coming into a water/food stop tired, hangry, and hot, so I just wanted to make people laugh and have fun. 

After we got into the host and while waiting for the other groups to come in (water van's job is not over until the last group arrives at the host), Chris and I launched a massive cleaning expedition on the water van. It was a little frustrating considering Porter and I did this less than a week ago and it had already returned to its trashed state. Riders generally leave the water van a mess after a water stop and water van drivers need to be on top of organization and cleaning. That is something we need to work on going forward. Anyway, we even had a Shop Vac from our host, so we actually vacuumed the van for the first time all trip.

After that, my legs were feeling restless, so I decided to go for a run. It was my first run of the trip. I did 5 miles and it was... interesting. My cardio was doing great - I was barely breathing hard at all. However, my legs felt like bricks. Complete bricks the whole time. It was crazy but I guess that's to be expected when you're biking across the country. I think running made them feel worse but I was glad I got to do some exercise today. I also think it's funny that I was feeling restless after 1.5 days of not biking. I'm scared of how I will feel when I get back from this trip!

For dinner, Jared's family friend (yes as you may have noticed he has a million family friends all over the country) had an all-you-can-eat deal set up at Noodles & Company. We took a school bus into the city that was legitimately like a party bus: the bus driver was blasting dubstep and encouraging a dance party. It was interesting but really fun. At Noodles, the manager came out and thanked us for what we were doing and then began bringing out tray after tray of free food. We all love Noodles so we were pretty much in heaven. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy devouring my food.

Well, that's all for today! Tomorrow we head south to Fairbury. Stay tuned :)