It's so hot I'm gonna have a ... heatstroke

I wonder what it will be like to go back to life where people don't stare at you wherever you go. It's kind of strange that I've become so accustomed to riding bicycles with 29 other people wearing spandex and matching uniforms that I no longer think it's weird. Even when we aren't riding, we always manage to attract attention by doing something ridiculous or wearing matching t-shirts. For example, we rode our bikes down to Chick-Fil-A while we were in Maryville to get Michelle a chicken sandwich for the first time (apparently there aren't Chick-Fil-A's in Minnesota), and we managed to get plenty of glances while taking photos with the cow and his car. I guess it's just part of riding a bicycle across the country. On the other hand, even random people are so encouraging and supportive. When I was riding up the mountain to the NC-TN border, somebody leaned out of the passenger seat of their car and shouted at me not to give up, which made me feel awesome and spurred me on to the top. Once we got there, we chatted with an RV driver who gave us a donation and some Korean tourists who wanted to take photos with us. I suppose it is all part of the amazing adventure of riding across the country.

Today we headed from Maryville just down the road to Sweetwater, TN, only a 40 mile ride. I decided that I was going to ride with the fast group today in an attempt to beat the heat. I did ok for a while, but I was pretty exhausted by the time we got to go to the armory where we were staying. Unfortunately, the armory is quite warm, so most people just spent the afternoon lying around in an attempt to sweat as little as possible. I managed to sleep on and off for about two hours and awoke to find that it was still hot. I can't really complain, though, since it's incredibly awesome of the armory to let us stay here and use their facilities. Some of us also received guitar lessons this afternoon from Scott Wilkins, our local musician extraordinaire. It's been a pretty lazy day with a short ride, but tomorrow will be a long ride. Hopefully it will cool off a little tonight and we can get some rest.