What a fun day in Arapahoe. There was some concern that Arapahoe had been hyped up a bit too much, but the town definitely exceeded expectations. I slept through it (oops), but some of my teammates started the day by running a 5K RUN... hmm a bit confusing for sure.
The highlight of the morning was the Arapahoe Fourth of July Parade. I had no clue what it would be like, but it was a lot of fun and let's just say we managed to get a bunch of candy... which I'm fairly certain was for children... not a bunch of college age students.
Afterwards, we attended a great venue in the park, where various clubs and groups from Arapahoe were selling perfect Fourth of July food. After stuffing our faces (as usual), Brady and I spent a couple of hours helping people fix their bikes with some basic maintenance. We are definitely very limited in our knowledge of bikes... but somehow, one way or another, we've been pulling through. A few days ago Ashley bent her rear derailleur. Today in an effort to make it possible for her to ride, Brady and I actually replaced her derailleur with a spare male derailleur that we had. I'm glad no one was there to watch us do it (aka we made a lot of mistakes initially), but we finally got it right and it seems to be in perfectly good riding condition. Although for me, the highlight of the maintenance wasn't even bikes.. it was Margrethe's horn that her brother bought for her a few weeks ago. She thought she had broken it and had through it into the trash can... but I pulled it out and managed to fix it! I would love to take major credit, but to be honest it was a very minor fix. Obnoxiously honking on horns while cycling is obviously a necessity...
Dinner at a homestay tonight - at the mayor's house actually. In addition to the great dinner, we also celebrated Katie's 22nd birthday. My birthday isn't during 4K, but I imagine it must be amazing (if a bit unusual) to celebrate your birthday in a completely different part of the country.
After dinner we had the chance of riding some horses that one of the hosts owned on the outskirts of town. Arapahoe really continued to surprise us, one event after another, not just fun things to do, but the acts of kindness and generosity that they are showing us. To cap off a great rest day, we watched the Arapahoe Fourth of July Fireworks. It's too bad that Arapahoe is now over and we'll be leaving tomorrow morning, but I know other 4K riders will be back in the future and I can't wait for them to experience small town life in Nebraska!
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Fourth of July Parade in Arapahoe, NE
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