Fun Times At McDonald's

Late last night, Jody and I arrived at Time Station 29 in Yates Center, Kansas.

Rather than stopping there, however, we decided to continue on down the road toward Time Station 30, to gain some ground on the riders. After about 15 miles, we pulled over at a McDonald's so we could rest and I could blog.

The first order of business, however, was dinner. This time around, that equaled a mango-pineapple smoothie for me and a berry smoothie for Jody.



I've now tried all three of the fruit smoothies (the third flavor is banana-strawberry), but I don't really have a favorite.

Heck, they all taste good to me.

When the manager on duty told us they were closing at 11:00, we knew we only had a little more than an hour to chill. However, when she heard that we were working for RAAM and that a few of the riders were due to ride past in the next few hours, she said we could stay in the restaurant even after closing time, since they would need at least an extra hour and a half to clean the place.

That was welcome news, since Jody and I would certainly be more comfortable waiting inside McD's than we would be waiting outside or in Jody's car.

Since McDonald's was nearly deserted, the manager had plenty of time to ask us all sorts of questions about the race, including when the next rider would be passing by. I gave her a ballpark figure but told her there was really no way to know.

She was so excited about the prospect of getting to see some of these incredible athletes that she also told a bunch of her friends/acquaintances, who had gathered outside the fast-food joint to chat and chill, what was going on. They too, seemed really interested in seeing the riders, so I reassured them that as long as they were patient they would definitely get to see some action.

Over the course of the next 2 1/2 hours or so, three riders, the team of Beau&Babe (which Jody and I refer to as "Ben & Jerry's," "Bonnie & Clyde," and "Bed & Breakfast"), Christoph Strasser, and Trix Zgraggen, all passed by.

Trix seemed to be especially happy to see the small crowd of fans gathered on the street corner. While all of us clapped and waved at her, she enthusiastically waved back at us, gave us the thumbs up, and yelled "Yeah!" and "Woo-hoo!"

Sadly, that will probably be the last time Jody and I see Trix along the course, since we will be following Strasser and Schoch the rest of the way.

Even after the riders passed by, the McDonald's manager kept asking us questions about the race.


At one point she even offered us lots of leftovers. We had to decline because of our "diet," but we told the manager we would take some cookies and give them away to riders and/or crew members. (We actually gave them away to the volunteers manning Time Station 34 today.)

With cookies in tow, Jody and I headed out to go look for a hotel. We finally settled on one about an hour away that was located in a McDonald's parking lot in El Dorado Springs, 34 miles into Missouri.

Luckily, the Nissan Super-Deluxe Motel Inn still had room for two.