The real longest day...

Update 7/25

So, I took an intentional detour to look for a pin, and then I missed a turn. As a result, I rode an extra 7 miles, totaling 113 miles for the day. Whoops.

The morning started off nasty. I was so glad that I was able to spend the night with my parents at a hotel! Flooding campsites and lots of rain and lightening do not make for a good night's sleep.

My parents bid me farewell, which was kind of sad. But I get to see my dad in September in Scotland, and my mom might come out and visit next semester and bring a picnic! (Since Stephen is going to UT next year, my mom says that she can bring him picnics.). It was pouring out and thundering and lightening. We had the option of waiting it out, but the 106 miles was not going to change. So, we all headed out...slowly...into the rain and headwinds. It was quite the struggle. I stayed with a pretty big group since we weren't going very fast, and I felt more comfortable riding closer to others. By the time we got to lunch, the rain had let up for the most part. But then it started to rain, again! I guess our 4 week stroke of incredible weather just had to be too good to be true.

After lunch, I spent most of the time riding by myself. It actually ended up getting hot and humid with sort of a tailwind. It made the last 50 miles go by really fast. I was feeling pretty good 3 miles from camp, and I saw a sign for a visitor's center at a nature area. I thought, pin! I should know by now that a sign doesn't mean that it's pointing right at the place. It ended up being 2 miles down the road and completely deserted. The visitor's center didn't have a pin, but they had a patch. I decided that it was good enough, and the cute old man working there gave me the patch out of the display case. When he was giving me my change out of a ziploc baggie, he found a whole bag of patches. Clearly they're a big seller since he knew there were more in the drawer and the money was in a ziploc.

I proceeded to get back on route, but I missed the turn onto Whitebowtie. I kept going and realized that I must have gone too far. I called Bridgette to ask if the street was not marked. She confirmed it was not marked and that she had put a Dan Henry. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I knew what turn she was talking about. I turned around, and I made it to camp. Total miles for the day : 113.

I went swimming in the lake, which was very refreshing. We had the cold cuts my parents got for dinner, and it started raining again. It was quite buggy and humid. I felt gross...I hope it's not as humid and muggy in the mountains...and buggy.

Since I'm updating this late, I can say that it took me a while to fall asleep because it was so hot in my tent. There was absolutely no breeze, which was ridiculous given the wind earlier today. It started raining and thundering at midnight, and my tent kept me nice and dry. Annnd, it cooled off. :).