Ohhh boy what a day. To start off, we had to drive about 60 miles to the shoe tree. We got out and the wind was coming from the east. We got all ready to go and to warm up to a head wind. We were going 8 miles an hour for what seemed like forever. We finally warmed up and actually started to move at a pace of about 21 miles per hour. Our first climb was pretty tough, it was about a 12 mile climb with that stupid head wind so it made it seem like forever and a half. After that we went down into the valley again and went up another hill. We came back down and the next climb was Austin Summit (so close to lunch time). I had to get over that mental block and I was hurting pretty bad. My initial thought was to just say rack it and get to lunch in the car. Then my second thought was, “This is nothing compared to what the people i’m riding for have to go through.” I thought of my aunt Kathy whose husband died of cancer and then I thoought of my second cousin (Aubri) and her cousin (Alec). It made me decide to push through and keep going.

I finally made it to lunch in little Austin. I ordered as much food as I dared seeing as how I was sick earlier today due to last night’s little dinner outing and this morning’s breakfast. After lunch, we had to climb up Austin Summit and at one spot the grade got up to 12%. I had to push through that hardship and kept thinking about everyone who was hurting. I thought how grateful everyone that had to go to Huntsman for treatment would be if they came out to see us.

We carried on and got 20 miles out of Eureka, and that’s about when the wet part came. There was a German woman who saw us on the side of the road and stopped to talk to us. She said she rode from SF, California to D.C. and said that she loves highway 50 (she has a 5th wheel and 128 acres with a pond out on highway 50). She said there was a downpour from about Eureka to where we were. We got our rain gear on earlier so we were “prepared” for the worst. We started to ride again and the rain was funky because there was a line of where the downpour had started (about 200 yards from us). Obviously we weren’t “prepared” because we got hit by that rain and I got SOAKED. Even with “waterproof” stuff on.

All in all it was a good day but i’m glad it’s over. Just 4 days left and I will be at home. Thanks for all your support. It really helps to know that someone’s following what you’re doing and encouraging you to push on.