Hopkins 4K for Cancer

June 30, 2002

Day 29 (65 Miles) Franklin, NE to Arapah
After having an incredible, home cooked breakfast prepared by the people from the church, some bike maintenance, and tying up some loose ends on the Internet, it was time to hit the road again.

For the first part of the ride, there was a 14-mile back track up the same road where we had the strong headwind yesterday. The difference was that today it was a tailwind and it helped us along so that it seemed like effortless pedaling to maintain 23 miles per hour. That lasted until we turned to head west again, and the wind became a crosswind.

In order to keep our minds off of fighting the wind, we played some games such as Family Feud and I don’t care what Ryan says, Caboose would not be on my top five list for names for a butt, but anyway…. We played the feud up until lunch and then headed for some of the only shade around in Nebraska: the front yard of a lady’s house. She didn’t mind that we ate there and used her bathrooms. After we ate, she even brought us into her back yard and showed us her dogs and horses. She told us all kinds of stories about her horses and their heritage.

Then it was time to hit the road again. This time, we played twenty questions and a riddle game to keep our minds off the crosswind that was trying to throw us off the right side of the road. Before we knew it, we were to Arapahoe where Dawn greeted some of us with Tour de France style refreshments handed out the van window as we rode by. We had to grab them from Dawn as we rode by on our bikes as she sat in the driver’s seat of the van.

We checked in at the church and then headed to one of two houses that were hosting us for the night. There we took showers, watched some television, and went for a walk to grab some ice cream to try to stay cool in the Nebraska heat. After that, it was time to report back to the church for dinner where we were not allowed to lift a finger; the people who prepared dinner insisted that we just sit and they serve us, and boy did they treat us like royalty. There was so much food and a great variety of it too. We all ate until we could not eat any more. Then came dessert and we ate more.

One of the dinner helpers was a young girl who wanted to go to Johns Hopkins some day. Dawn and Kelly talked to her about JHU and the pre-med program, and then she came to ice cream with us.

After dinner we unwound by watching a movie and playing some football out in the street. Then it was time to settle down for bed. We returned to our respective houses and rolled out our sleeping bags. After some jokes and some talking, the fact that we were all exhausted set in and the lights went out and the noise gave in to sleep.

- Brent Bass