Monday a.m.

Good morning! You ready for this? Monday. I am. It's going to be a great week!

The weekend went well for me/us. Friday I smoked meat all day, plus I did yard work and finished up a few things for Sunday. It was a beautiful day. I decided to not run Friday. I did a brick on Thursday--ride followed immediately by a run--and was a bit tired. Knowing that I had a big ride on Saturday, I decided to rest.

Saturday was wonderful! I met Bill and Dan at McDonald's in Bedford for some pre-ride oatmeal and fellowship. Then it was time to make the drive to Crane. We were met by 1000s of flags as we turned to Westgate, which was the staging area for the ride. I heard there were 500 riders participating. We got our bikes all prepped and then met for the (too long) opening ceremony. Mike and Tim had their wives with them. Lori and Jamie were riding the 30 miler.

Mike, Tim, John, Bill, Rand, Dan, and I are planned on 65. After we passed through the gate, John saw a faster friend. We did not see him/them the rest of the day. That left 6 of us. It was a fun day. Lots of hills and considerable heat made me careful about hydration and nutrition. I had a couple of minor bouts of fatigue (expected) but felt really strong at the end. Compared with last year, I am in a lot better shape. Part of that may be due to a better bike? We shared lots of laughs and simply enjoyed the ride. We saw a snake and an eagle, which was pretty cool.

Saturday evening we had a nice family meal. Lester and Maddie joined us, and Luke "Skyped" in from Antigua, Guatemala. He gave us a detailed description of the bridge construction. It was very interesting and so nice to see/hear him. I think you can see the photos/description here.

Well, Blogger seems to be messed up this morning, so I will end this here and hope I can post it.