Total mileage: 1807.4
Last night the group voted to sleep in and eat a hot breakfast provided to us by our host. Sadly that meant that with an 8 am breakfast we had to push back our departure time. By the time I had gotten up from breakfast and grabbed my stuff, most of the team was saddled and ready to go. With only a couple of people left, Marcus and I decided to hit the road as a duo.
While there was a headwind the two of us passed the time by chatting and checking out some of the local historic markers. The nice thing about the open roads is that you are able to ride two across which helps facilitate conversations. Typically when we have been riding single file much of the conversation is lost in the wind.
At lunch we did a quick check of the weather and the air temperature was 99 degrees with a UV index of 10 which meant it was hot hot hot out there. It was at this moment I realized how careful I am going to have to be of the sun; showing up crispy to the host is a recipe for disaster the next morning. Here Maggie is preparing herself for an afternoon out in the sun.
After lunch Marcus convinced myself and sweep to take a detour down a closed street bridge about 14 miles outside the host. The little extra mileage was well worth it. The road lead over an abandoned bridge and a lazy river, through an amazing rock formation and up a hill which gave us a great view of the valley.
As we made our way through town and towards our host I noticed some very faded chalking for a local swimming pool. After riding in the heat all day with crazy cross wind, nothing sounded better than hopping into a pool. There were still a couple of Bike and Builders hanging out so we decided to take full advantage of the pool being open for another five minutes (no joke). We walked quickly (as an ex lifeguard I cannot condone running on a pool deck) over to the water slide and just as they whistled that the pool was closing we were on our way down into the pool.
While chatting with some of the other riders post water slide, we saw they had DM'ed a couple of American flags with the dealership just a quick trip down theroad we took off to see if we could grab some of our own. Marcus worked his charm and walked out of the main office with two flags in hand.
One of the missions given to us during our route meeting was to DM dinner because while we had a place to stay, dinner was not going to be provided. As our group got back super late one of the other duo groups was able to get dinner donated from Tacos El Rey, an awesome locally owned Mexican restaurant with banging enchiladas.
After dinner groups made their way over to Riley's Brain Freeze for some homemade Itlian ice. A couple of people in the group had never had them before, but this was the perfect way to end a hot bike riding day.d
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