May 26th, Day 3! Vantage to Odessa.

Up at 5:30 am again. Still an ungodly hour. Give me a few more days to get used to it. Breakfast was full buffet style at a local restaurant as a group. We had a tight and busy bridge to cross first thing in the morning so we got into formation with a support in front and back and all 37 riders riding together in the middle. Never experienced escort service quite like that. It was a long long hot hot day. A bit of headwind and lots of rolling hills. I rode with Greg, a fellow recent graduate from Nebraska, for most of the day. The bum was hurting a WHOLE LOT that day. Also forgot to grab my sunscreen that morning and got my first bad burn of the trip. I also got stung by a very rude little bee on the road. I hadn't been stung in so long I forgot how much those stinkers hurt!! I definitely screamed outloud and made a few cows jump on the side of the road (figuratively of course, they can't really jump...silly cows). We finally rolled into Vantage highschool and set up camp after 85 long rough miles. Some ladies from the town made us a very tasty dinner, after which I tossed the frisbee with a few of the guys, dunked my burnt little body in the local pool, and then it was off too bed.