Saterday RftR

Today we got up early to join the “abandoned” ride, 36 k for riders who were not invited to join Lance for a ride. Erik started with a flat before we even got going. I met up with even more CCC-ers who had arrived last night.
The sky was overcast but no rain and a comfortable temperature.
We started of at a comfortable pace down Barton Springs Road, to the MoPac and onto Hwy 360. Here we got some nice hills to test the legs and mine are still a little heavy, going downhill was going excellent I hit 62km/h speeding down.
We stopped by the bike store for Erik to get his tire checked and pick-up a new inner tube for tomorrow.
After a quick shower and lunch at the hotel it was time for the autograph session. We had to go to the 17th floor in the hotel where we found a line of people patiently waiting for their few seconds with Lance. Erik had to leave his camera behind at the door and the security guy at the door completed the picture. Once through the door there was an other line with slowly getting more and more excited people waiting.
I was ready with my 3 items to sign and the few words I wanted to say to Lance. Erik and I walked up to the table and I shook Lance’s hand and even before I said my name he recognized me as the Dutch Girl (from last night), that’s impressive! We sat down and I gave him the picture I framed for him with my thank you message on it. Lance reacted enthusiasticly and listened to my story while signing the LIVESTRONG baseball cap, CCC team jersey and the picture mat from my own LIVESTRONG Challenge picture. One more picture with everybody smiling and off we went, Thanks Lance for taking time.
After this we walked to 6th street to find a WIFI hotspot and update my BLOG. We quickly looked at the Capital and bought some breakfast for tomorrow morning.
Time for a little rest with our feet up and some football, Erik kept asking me questions on the rules etc, but I can’t say last years attempts to understand the game really paid off! (Sorry Kim we’ll have to start over with the football lessons!)
We also kept a watch full eye out for the bats that were supposed to fly out from under the bridge in front of the hotel. They never came according to my brother!
I took off to the awards dinner and met up with the CCC-ers and others I met during the weekend. Bob wanted to know which restaurant didn’t want to give me a free lunch in Northfield MN, because he was going to send a family member there to find out why they didn’t support me. People actually came up to me to ask about my ride from Minneapolis to Austin, they read about me or heard the story going around. I had all the CCC-ers sign my jersey to complete my souvenier from this adventure.
Then it was time to find a table and get some pasta, I like carb-loading!
I met Doug from LAF who was wondering who belonged to the car with MN plates last week during the Challenge! He told me there might be a Minneapolis Challenge in the future, wouldn’t that be cool! Sign me up for that one!
Lance welcomed all off us to the diner and thanked us for our fundraising efforts and for being cancer advocates. He’s starting a campaign to make sure that federal cancer funding gets back to the level it needs to be!
Will accepted the Top-fundraising Team award for the CCC-team; we raised almost half a million dollars in the 5 LIVESTRONG Challenges!
After dinner we needed to get the CCC-team behind the scene for a few more pictures with Lance! I can’t wait to see that one. I got to see Jake Gyllenhaal up close, but didn’t have a camera handy to snap a picture.
Then it was time to say goodnight and get some sleep for the ride, it might rain is what Lance told us. I sure hope it’s not going to spoil the ride!