Day 32: 94 Miles

Sunday July 17th

Word of the day: LOST. I stopped counting after the 10th time we stopped analyzed the maps, Garmin GPS, and a location application on my iPhone to figure out where we were going! It was crazy how many times we got lost and had to call the support vehicle for help. However, it was a beautiful hot day and we were surrounded by wonderful guests who were riding with us so getting lost today wasn’t as frustrating as others. We had 13 riders at one point-- it was quite the crew. Jaime Cruz rode for the first 60 miles with us. Jaime served as a Marine and then entered the National Guard at which point he was deployed to Iraq. He still serves as a MP and participates in the Ride2Recovery challenges. Jaime was entertaining to ride with and put a smile on all of our faces with his stories and jokes. Jaime was actually quite the jokester. At one of the rest stops he snuck up behind me with an ice cold glass of water and poured it on me! It was ridiculously hot so it felt refreshing. Sandy and Dave Hahn (R2R volunteers) also joined us for the first 20 miles of our route along with John Everett and Bets Kent who rode for 30 miles of the day.  For the majority of the ride we were on bike paths which was fantastic because it allowed us to get off the busy roads and ride side by side with our guests where we could share stories and enjoy each other’s company. After all our guests had gone their separate ways we were back to our typical 8 riders. The heat was immense and slowed us down. We were sure to keep applying our sunscreen, hydrating, and eating our CORE bars for energy as the sun beat down on our backs. We rolled into our campground around 7:00pm where we had (at our request) breakfast for dinner! YUM! Omelets, fruit, bacon, potatoes...what a feast! It got dark before we knew it. The realization began to set in that we were now so close to the East Coast and the sun didn’t set at 11:00pm like it did in Montana! So...We were doing dishes in the dark with headlamps strapped to our foreheads. It was an entertaining thing to watch as water was flying everywhere when we were trying to clean. After a while we decided that it was “camp clean” and promised we would clean it better before the next big meal. We filed into our tents and went to bed. The girls decided that we would sleep without our rain tarp on because it was so hot outside. BUT, at 4:00am it started thundering and lightening. Thankfully our trusty support vehicle helpers: Nicole (Better known to me as Mom) and Cathy (Aunt) put our rain tarp back on before the rain began. I was EXTREMELY glad to wake up not sleeping in a puddle. THANKS MOM AND AUNTIE CATHY! 

T-Minus 12 days until Maine. This amazing journey has gone by oh so quickly. Such a bittersweet feeling. I'm having the time of my life.

Brittany Marien