SingleDay, as it were

Saturday was so wonderful! We arrived about an hour before the ride began and got registered and did a team photo and whatnot…

There were fun folks all about, ready for a fun day in the sun!

The ride is so so pretty! Here, my friend Harmony rides through amber waves of grain, Mt. Baker in the distance.

We stopped for lunch at the LaConnor Brewery. Yum.

Dear SB tolerates my making him stop for a photo op on a pretty bridge:

After about 45 miles on the first day, there’s dinner and a presentation about all the good your donations are accomplishing. I always blubber though most of it. There just aren’t words, you guys. ALS takes so many people in the primes of their lives. But the ALS Association helps them to stay as active as possible. They are a 100% service organization who always says yes. No matter what sort of support a person with ALS needs, they will find a way to make it happen. We raised $132,000 as of race day, and it’s not too late if you’d still like to contribute.

Day one ends at the Conway Tavern. It is a total dive, whole-in-the-wall kind of place, but I swear it is enchanted by some sort of high on life spirit, or something. Also, it must be said, that my friends can TEAR IT UP at karaoke. Seriously.

Unfortunately, I should have known where my weekend was heading when SB, usually a life of the party sort of dude, caught a ride back to camp early because he wasn’t feeling too well. After I’d danced and sang to my heart’s content, I joined him, and found him damp and shivering in our tent. He already had a cold, but the freezing damp didn’t help. He coughed and coughed all night long, each cough bouncing me in the air on the other side of the air mattress. At first light, having not slept all night, he had a fever, his sunburn was starting to blister, and 40 miles of hills in 80 degree weather was not looking like a possiblilty. So we packed up our tent and bikes and were on the way home before anyone was out of bed.

I was super bummed, but there was nothing I could do. He had to get home. If it hadn’t been so hot, I could have finished the day and he could have slept in the car or something, but that wasn’t possible in the heat. If there is an up side to this, I’m even more excited for next year, then I would have been anyway. I think we’ll bring my Clarkie, my mom, and stay in a hotel.