Day 7 was a really long day this year so taking Friday off may not have been a terrible idea. We started the day off with the team picture at 6 am. That was not really that bad since it seems like we were up at 5 am most mornings any way. After trying to muster up a sleepy smile we hopped on the bikes for a scheduled 71 mile ride. Of course with our bonus miles we ended up with almost 80 miles for the day to make my total for the week, even with the day off, to 413 miles. Not bad for a week!
We rolled into the meeting point about 2 pm and we were the last group in. It was nice to see so many teammates excited to see me but as it turns out, they were less than enthused to see me but they really wanted to get on the road. We did get rolling after a quick bite to eat at a local watering hole and the best part of ending in Davenport is the ride home is much shorter. We rolled into the "Irish Inn" about 6 pm with a quick flury of activity to get everything unloaded, although this year our incredible support staff of Don and Chris had everything off the truck already. That is when the hard part starts, the goodbyes.
After 5 years with team cuisine it amazes me how 25 strangers from incredibly different backgrounds can be so close after 1 week a year together especially when you consider all the riding and on little to no sleep all week. The goodbye is a little tough knowing it will be 1 year until we do it again and in most cases I will not even see them until we get back on the bus next year. Only 356 days until ragbrai 2019!
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