This one wasn't fun

Friday's ride started a little rough and ended up kicking my ass. The rain started about 3:15 am and since I still insist on renting I was outside. My tent was a champ and I was dry as a bone, but not for long. I set off about 6:15 with skies promising rain but nothing yet. After a short 10 miles to the first town we began slowly riding through and the skies opened up. A soaking downpour kept us busy but mother nature was not done with us yet. The winds shifted a little and came from the north with a nice biting chill. While heading south on some decent hills the 22 mph sustained winds were tough but the gusts almost stopped you cold. To make matters worse I got a flat but fortunately it was in front of a church that was inviting people in to warm up. With the flat fixed I was dreading getting back on the bike until I saw my saviors. There are a group on Team Cuisine that are from Washington D.C. and I saw two of them, Lynn & Tom, just as they pulled up to the church. They asked .e to ride with them and they had a way better attitude about the ride than I did which, in turn, made mine get better. After a couple dirty jokes, I was beginning to enjoy the day.

After an unusual whole team SAG we arrived at our overnight host house for dinner. Dinner Friday was a black tie affair, a item I was unaware of until we were in Iowa, so $5 trip to goodwill got me a jacket & tie to go with my shorts, t-shirt, sandals combo. I looked good but the pics attached show I was severely under dressed.

Dinner was sockeye salmon with a mango and cherry salsa, Orzo with garlic, a green salad and green bean almonds with Spanish almonds that were the best I'd ever had. This was the first meal in 5 years Devotay repeated a dish and I see why. This was my favorite meal of the week by far.

After dinner is now time for the Spokesmen, our traveling band consisting of John "Red" McCabe on drums, Tom Tallman on bass and Jeff Teppema on guitar, vocals and all around keeping this mess straight. And speaking of the band, they're on so I have to listen but I will post from after tomorrow's cake walk 25 mile ride to the finish.