Day 15, Debois to Riverton

This morning it was very cool, damp and overcast as we headed out from the Middle School to the restaurant for breakfast. The breakfast conversation centered around the topic that the wind was not going in our direction but against our direction, in our faces most of the day. With 80 miles to travel, it was not going to be fun today.

We hit the road with one destination in mind. At the 30 mile mark was a single gas station. Hot coffee was the treasure. Most everyone was under dressed for for the ride. I had my cycling tights on with a cycling jersey and yellow riding jacket with full gloves, but should have had something warmer. The hills would warm me up and the descends would cool me down. When we got to the Exxon station, there were several other riders there as well, emptying the coffee pot and grabbing snacks. It was so nice to get warm. We must have been there for over 1/2 hour.

When we got back on the road the skies started to spit at us. Had the sag wagon come along at that time, I would have waved them down and gotten a ride to Riverton. That did not occur and eleven miles later we were at the picnic stop. We ate the warm soup on stone picnic benches and did our best to warm up.

Leaving lunch we picked up one more rider for our pace line, Philipee. With five in the line, each rider would only need to take the lead twice every 10 miles. With forty miles to the end we headed out.

Our next destination was another gas station at about 82 miles. The cold miles ticked by one by one. We piled into the gas station when we found it and may have stayed longer than we needed to, but it felt good to be warm and it was our first chance in several days to read the newspaper.

We only had 20 miles to go as we left the gas station. I have a 10 mile commute to work normally, so I placed myself in the mind frame that I all needed to do was ride to work then back again.

We arrived in Riverton about 2:45 and I dashed off to the nearby public library to upload yesterday's blog entry and to complete todays. Now it's back to the school to shower up before dinner at 5:30.

Wish us warm weather tomorrow,

Brian