A Typical Day, Part 5

After dinner we have our evening meeting, called peloton.  A peloton is a group of riders riding in a line drafting off of each other which allows them to go faster as a group than they could alone.  Jay Prium, the tour's chaplain, usually starts the meeting with a short devotion and prayer.  We count the number of flats and falls people had and open the mic to anyone who wants to share something about the day, particularly any stories of donations they collected from strangers.  A list of directions for tomorrow's route is distributed (this is erroneously referred to as a map, a minor pet peeve of mine), and Phil Quist explains the route to us including any detours or interesting points along the way.  Any new riders joining us are asked to introduce themselves, and any riders leaving after the next day's ride are offered the opportunity to say goodbye.

After peloton, we break up into our small groups.  There are eighteen groups, each with a leader.  For some reason, our group wasn't assigned a leader, so we aren't entirely sure what the expectation was for what we should be doing.  We usually just chat for a while about how our day went and then one of us prays.

After small groups the rest of the night is free.  People use this time to blog or check email, to sit around and chat, to play euchre, or to get ready for bed.  Bedtime for most people is usually sometime between 9:00 and 10:00 pm.  We all need our sleep so we'll be fresh and ready to do it all again tomorrow.