Hi To All,

This has been another  l-o-n-g and interesting day. Total mileage for today is 110 miles and the good news is that I pedaled every bit of it--it even amazes me but I guess the only secret is to keep going and I am good at that. 

We had breakfast at 6:00 a.m. and I was the second person out of the parking lot about 6:30.

 Everyone or almost everyone passes me by because even though I have gotten faster, so has everyone else so they still ride away from me. Oh well, it's the old tortoise and the hare story from grade school. 

At least four people were SAGGED some parts of today and I made the total mileage. The first 15 miles I cruised right along--then the next 15 miles were into a 10 mile an hour head wind and it's like riding up a mountain because no matter how hard you try, you can't go more than 6 or 7 miles an hour and the wind just beats you up. 

When we had our first sag stop at 30 miles, my body was numb all over . The guys that have big muscles handled it pretty well but even some of the other men were struggling.  I slipped behind one guy that had stopped and just tagged him for about an hour or I don't think I could have gotten out of there.  It was all desert too and that isn't my favorite place to be.By the time my body started functioning again, everybody else had left the SAG stop and there were still hills to go and that darn head wind.  I called Gabriel at mile 35 and said I NEED HELP and encouragement. I really had as they say "hit the wall" for the first time (or maybe the second--climbing up to Mt. Hood was another time).

Then after a few more miles, all of a suddden the terrain got greener and the Snake River came into view and I instantly started to feel better so by the time Gabriel got back to me, I said "I'm fine now" so he caught me about mile 50 and sagged me the rest of the day. 

He keeps me "fueled and cooled" and then I just keep truckin" on. Good thing I am starting to ride faster because the last 20 miles we could see a storm brewing off to the side and we got in at 5:40pm and about 3 minutes later, the storm hit  so hard with rain and so much wind you could hardly stand up. After about a half an hour, everything was calm again like nothing had happened.  Seems every afternoon something has been brewing somewhere but the last few days it missed us.

Message for Dave Gonzales--we had to look a long time but guess what we found in Aberdeen, Idaho? Gabriel stopped to talk to a nice policeman; told him what we were doing etc., and asked if we could talke a picture of him with me for the web.  He said "Sure" and Gabriel said "put your arm around her" so he did and I said "it's OK" "one of our nicest friends in SB is a "Singing Cop" and this officer said "That's what they call me around here".  He had just had the male lead in "The Sound of Music" -Captain Von Trapp-- .           

Time for bed,

Love, Patricia

Patricia with singing officer Darius Dustin