Day 68
August 8th, 2007

After another amazing night sleep at the beautiful Hotel Roanoke we were ready for the long 110 miles ride, or so we thought. We were warned last night by some local Roanoke residents that today would be a hot one but it turned out to be one of the hottest of the trip. As the day matured and the sun sweltered to the mid sky everything became a little more difficult. Nothing can zap a cyclist's energy quite like the sun. A lot more dangers come into play when the heat index rises. Our primary concern for the say was dehydration. The crew was ready to fight this battle with water and Gatorade additive all the crew stops. As we rolled on through the day the heat from the sun and the reflected heat off the road combined with the high humidity forced a few riders off their bikes and into the vans. When the ride finally came to an end at the Days Inn in Farmville it was a dash to our air conditioned rooms for a cool shower. For the evening we headed to the other side of town for great friendship at an organization called STEPS. STEPS is a facility that caters to individuals with disabilities by providing jobs. The organization does government contracted piece work. The people who work at STEPS piece together military clothing and accessories. When we rolled up in the vans we were treated to a grand welcoming by all the people who worked at the facility. They treated us to a great BBQ and showed us a sweet new way of eating hot dogs. They put coleslaw on them? STEPS also gave us a really awesome gift bag with cool things sponsored by the community such as tshirts and toothpaste. After dinner we all went outside and played some fun games and danced for a while. We all had a great time, this was one of the best stops of the whole trip. After the dinner visit a few of us went to wash our clothes for the final days of the trip. After laundry it was back to our hotel for another night of being spoiled by sleeping in a real bed.