Boonville, NY

Today started without rainfall.  I took off by myself through rough roads and a smidge of road construction, and zipped through hill after hill.  There were tree covered roads, flowing white water to my left, and lots of climbing.  My favorite kind of ride.  I actually got a bit distracted and totally day dreaming when I saw our support van driving towards me.  We both slowed and I learned that they had gotten a bit off course, and that lunch was going to be set up behind me a mile or two.  Whoops!

We found a spot on the side of the road and waited for the rest of the group to join us.  The sunshine was perfect, and kept us warm for the afternoon.  This was a very special lunch since the family of one of the riders spent the day putting together sandwich wraps and snacks for everyone!  This is no common occurrence, and we were all in awe over their selfless act.  

After lunch I joined with others and took it easy after my morning spent pushing it.  It's so lovely how within one day you can have so many different experiences, and how just riding at someone else's pace or with a different group of people can give you a new perspective and appreciation for our trip and the places we pass through.  

When we arrived at our new destination, wouldn't you know it, the rain was not far behind.  As we snacked on yummy fruits, the rain did start to fall.  We are no stranger to rain, and so we barely even noticed.  We explored town, dropped off postcards at the local post office, and enjoyed our night anyway.  There was even an added adventure involved in the form of a hunt for wine flavored ice cream.  It was the talk of the town so we decided to hunt it down.  After a handful of the same wrong turns, we walked for over a mile down the highway until we got to the ice cream shop just two minutes before they closed.  I felt a little guilty since the kids behind the counter were probably excited to be off work, but they were nice enough to scoop us all sorts of flavors.  I went with my standard chocolate and coconut while others snacked on the wine flavored pints.  We practically didn't even notice the rain by the time we finally got back to our sleeping bags.