We start the day on a bitter-sweet note: Our first home-cooked breakfast (thanks Susan), followed by a trip to the airport to drop off my son, Jett. He needed to change his plans and take an early departure to start a new job at home.  We had so much fun together, and he has been my cycling muse, urging me on to try and catch him.  He is immediately missed by the whole team, and doubly so by me.

We take this as an off day, and go into town to the Mother Road Market.  It is an interesting concept, where upstart chefs can set up a prolonged pop-up stall to test out their products and develop their professional systems.  We take the opportunity to meet with Delynne, who runs a Dancing For Parkinson’s studio. We were introduced to her in a fun way:  we stopped briefly at a famous Route 66 attraction – a blue whale built  on a pond like a raft – but we were late for an interview and literally ran in and out.  Mid-stride, we had a 15 second conversation with a gentleman who was standing beside the whale, and the word “Parkinson’s” was uttered, his wife was mentioned, and I snapped a quick photo of his company name.  What transpired from that was a detailed interview with Delynne, where we discovered that she decided to dedicate her free time to helping people with Parkinson’s despite the fact that she has no personal connection to it.  

For journalistic integrity, I must report that Jim trounced Bill and I in a game of mini putt. His manner of cheating has not yet been ascertained.