73.87 mi 30.0 max 4:29.09 avg 16.6
Wow, that last one was a really long post. Some days are like that, I guess.
According to several people, there were some miscreants who ran through our camp (which was in the Gillette city park) beating tents with sticks. I was on the edge of our little tent city, and Brian called over to ask if I was alright, and apparently I rolled over. As far as I know, none of this happened, because I had my earplugs in. The light sleepers among us heard the kids going through, but there were also many who were too exhausted after our last day to hear anything.
Today was so much better. I never thought that I'd say it was an easy 80 miles or so...but I got into camp by 2. I did 75 miles in under 4 1/2 hours of ride time. I've NEVER averaged 16.6 mph on a ride. Of course, the elevation profile looked like a ramp, and we had a tailwind as stiff as the headwind from yesterday. We all NEEDED this day, because it was pure fun. I remember why I like cycling! In the beginning of the day, Eric K., Charlie, and I rode together. Eric has such a wry sense of humor, and his timing is impeccable. Ask him to tell his fifty mile joke sometime - but to make it work, you should be going over cut pavement after having ridden at least 50 miles. He says he'd write them down, but then you'd lose the accents - and that would really detract from the joke.
For the last 15 miles or so, I made up my mind to just ride faster. I passed a couple of people...that mantra really works, on the downhills, anyway.
In the afternoon, I spent most of my time working on my pictures, naming the ones that I'd downloaded onto Deb's computer in the first week on the trip. Hopefully, that will make the selection a little easier when it comes time to put them all together. Maybe.
The pictures that you see above are from our ride across ANOTHER construction zone. About 10 or 12 of us stacked onto a flatbed truck - Ellen (in the orange helmet) laid across the tops of the bikes, Steve & Brian sat on top of the truck, and Christy was sitting on the end, holding the bikes on. There were other people on & in the truck, too. We were assured that this was indeed the safest way across the construction site (by the woman driving the truck, with the cutest little dog sitting in her lap). Needless to say, we weren't convinced as the truck shifted from one side of the road to another, threatening once to spill us onto the ground as the truck hit a soft shoulder. Afterwards, we wondered why we couldn't have followed the pilot car - that probably would have the most safe option.
Ahh, always an adventure!
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