Day 25

111 miles from Bartlesville, OK to Neosha, Missouri.

First - a report from last night in Bartlesville, home of Frank Lloyd Wright's "skyscraper" - built in 1956, just like me. We took the elevator up to the 17th floor bar and I had a glass of real wine - it was a truly amazing experience! Dinner was pretty ordinary, but fun.

We were off by 7:45 in the morning, our usual little trio plus Karl - there to ensure we went fast enough. By the first van stop we had passes our other groups (not that this is a race!) and Bill had joined us. We took the speed up a bit more and headed in to a fantastic lunch (Prosciutto and Insalade Caprese - it made my top 3) at mile 65. Post lunch, the Missouri state line beckoned and we hit it a bit harder. I swear, the minute we crossed that line the grass got greener, the trees got greener and live people started popping up all over the place. Overall, I think we agreed that Oklahoma wasn't as tough as we expected, though that one killer day into the wind certainly left a lasting impact. Overall, the roads were fantastic - good surfaces and very few cars. We just has one busy stretch and Brian and Diana, on a string of unfortunate luck, were almost run off the road on it and had to jump into the van again for a while. Hopefully they have now appeased the gods and can get back to riding every day.

Everyone seems to be living proof of the old axiom "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger", and 111 mile rides like today seem to be handled with increasing ease by everyone in the group. William, who probably put in the least amount of training time, is proving to be an incredibly resilient rider, while Dana and Britt just steadily work through the day and show up happy at the other end.

By the way, given how bad my photography is, you should consider checking out Dana and Britt's blog at http://habegger.tumbir.com.