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I'm sitting on the plane on my way backto Omaha at the moment, reflecting on the last 4 days. It's hard tobelieve that it is already over. But let me tell you what, I had thetime of my life. Every moment of it. Except those ten miles rightaround 75. Those were rough. ha but I got over it.

I guess the only way to tell this storyto all of you is to begin at the beginning...

From the dawn of time...

just kidding.

Thursday:

Man, thursday morning came far, FAR tooearly. I had to wake up at 2:45 to get ready and head out the door by3:15 to drive an hour up to the Omaha airport to catch my 6:00 a.m.flight. It was fun to see the whole team together. Everyone was soexcited and the energy even early in the morning was motivating. 

Of course that only lasted a fewminutes once we were on the plane and everyone was fading in-and-outof sleep.

But anyway, it was cool because it wasthe first time the whole Seagull team (Omaha and Lincoln)were able toall be together. Some of the people I hadn't had the chance to meetand others I hadn't seen since before the Gall bladder incident of2009. Here are the players:

Julie: Team-in-TrainingDirector, and a hilarious and motivating person!

Brent: Our coach and fearlessleader

Jeff: The soon-to-be Lincolncycling coach and also the father of our honored hero Kirsten

Terry: Hilarious guy with awicked dry sense of humor. He's married to Janine Zimmer...

Janine: Janine is Terry's wife,she's such a wonderful person just really personable and always has asmile on her face. Terry & Janine's son has Leukemia and isfighting like a champ.

Caitlin: Caitlin is Pamela'sfriend and just really a genuine person. She is a fan of ElizabethGilbert's book “Eat, Pray, Love” so i knew I'd like her!

Pamela: Pa mela was qutie thecharacter. She joined TNT because she'd always wanted to do BRAN butcouldn't convince anyone to do it with her so she opted for the 100mile ride instead after convincing her friend Caitlin to join. Shealso had been reading about the Ponies on Asseteague Island since shewas ten and wanted to make it there to see them.

Stacia:This girl is a riot. She's hilarious and motivating...always the onewho is cheering everyone on the loudest.

RhondaThisgirl is a MACHINE!! She totally rocked out on the bike ride andfinished first on our team!! She enjoys her Captain Morgan's, hencewhy we refer to her as “The Captain”

Diane: Diane is so sweet. She'ssoft-spoken and wonderful but such a champ man! She can move likecrazy on a bike!!

Sharon: Oh,Sharon. What the heck would I have done without this girl??? Shebecame my riding buddy when we both discovered we rode at the samespeed...thus forming “Team Slow!” She's hilarious and fun to talkto.

They were all such a cool group of people! I adore them all!



Here's a photo that Caitlin took of Pamela, Stacia and myself beforeshe realized that I was with the group (we hadn't met before.) She thought I was just weird or something making my way into her shots. It was kinda funny.

 

And here's one after she realized who I was...I was named Athlete of the Week the day before...I was KINDA a big deal! haha. Caitlin is on the far left.

I honestly don't remember too muchabout the flight...as I slept through large chunks of it. The parts Ididn't sleep through involved the sever turbulance we experienced. Itwas crazy. There was like a monsoon or something going on in St.Louis.

Here we are sitting around eating bagels and such in the St. Louis Airport, Coach Brent is the one sitting next to me:

 

In any case, I think we were all relieved when we touched downin Maryland!! It seemed so surreal to me...and i know it did to atleast a majority of the others on my team, that we were actuallyhere! THIS was the weekend!!

From the airport we made our way to thecar rental place and broke up into 3 groups of 4. I joined “TeamAvenger” which consisted of Jeff (our chauffeur), Rhonda (thecaptain), Sharon (the navigator) and myself scrunched into a DodgeAvenger with all of our luggage! 

Speaking of The Captain, here she is!

Someone had the brilliant idea of goingout for seafood since we were on the shore! And brilliant it was! Wehad heard rumblings of this restaurant that was a local favorite andevidently it was only 5 miles away from the airport. Well, and houror so later when we finally found the place we discovered it was wellworth the wait...You probably saw something about this in my earlier post.

Everyone loaded up on crab legs,oysters, clams, muscles and shrimp. It was awesome and a perfect wayto start out this trip! I order their award winning lump crab cakewhich was literally the size of a baseball. It was SO good.

Here are Stacia and Sharon having a puppet show with the clam shells:

 

 

 

From there we made our way to our hotelin Salisbury, MD, home of the Seagull Century Ride!! We checked intoour rooms and immediately went downstairs to unpack our bikes thathad been delivered earlier. And lo and behold, my bike was in perfectshape! Excellent start to the trip!

Now, let me explain something abouttraveling with Nebraskans. Travel plans need to be made to fit aroundfootball schedules. The Nebraska V. Missouri game was Thursday nightand it was essential that we found our way to a sports bar promptlyso that we didn't miss the game.

 

When in Maryland, do as the Nebraskansdo!

So, someone asked the concierge behindthe front desk where a local sports bar was and said that it was justabout a half a mile down the road.

Half a mile my arse.

I swear that we had to have walked atleast two miles to this place! And BTW...I was wearing flip flopsbecause I figured we weren't traveling far. My feet hurt SO bad! Butanyway, we got into this sports bar and they gave us the sweet setup:our own room with a HUGE projection screen TV and about 8 other 42inch TVs surrounding the room so you could watch it at every angle.It was CRAZY! We stayed there until about midway through the 3^rdquarter when the score was Nebraska: 0, Missouri: 9. Little did weknow that only moments later the game would take off and Nebraskawould crush Mizzou! Dangit! But we enjoyed our drinks and food! Then it was off to bed for our ride the following morning!!

Part II coming soon!