WORST: Having to get psyched up to leave the family and restart the bike portion of this trip. It didn't take long to get back up to speed unfortunately.
MOST UNEXPECTED: The bathrooms at our very sucky campsite at the local high school are locked. We have already had a volunteer to leave them a present.
After getting dropped off at the Gettysburg college where the Big Riders were staying, we went through the morning routine. The morning routine consists of getting your gear to the truck before the loading time, getting the truck loaded through a fire bucket line, handing out of the cue sheets with instructions from Charlton on what to look for, changes to the route, etc. eating a lousy breakfast, filling water bottles, last minute toilet stop, and then rolling out. Don't get any of this out of order, or you get in trouble.
Todays ride of 62 miles was lovely, with rollers, and although the humidity was in the 70's, the temperature was in the 80's. We crossed over the state boundary into Maryland with a state marker indicating Mason at the bottom of the marker. If you add Dixon to the first name, you will get that the state border is the Mason Dixon line. I am experiencing de ja vu all over again on the last several rides. Todays ride reminded me of Wisconsin. I think if you took my pictures and scrambled them up, I would not be able to tell you which state was which with the exception of Mt. Rushmore which is the state of Oregon, and the badlands which are in Texas. Close enough.
Breaking the ride down into 20 miles blocks still works, you only need to ride 20 miles until you get a break point, so your struggles are set at a reasonable distance.
We got to Poolesville at around 11:30 and after we unloaded the truck we headed to the local pool (25 meter pool) and swam to get out of the warmer weather. This is also where the closest shower is (1/2 mile) located. The bathrooms are located about 100 yards away and were open when we first got here, but some genius decided to lock them up this afternoon, so there will be big problems later. We have already had one big problem resolved, somewhere on this site, and I am not asking any questions other than where to avoid going.
This is the last night of sleeping on the ground, and I can't wait to pack up my tent tomorrow for a couple of nights in a hotel bed before heading home. The bed in Gettysburg was heaven! Currently we are all sitting in the shade of the truck as we wait for the sun to go down and the temperatures to drop. The current temperature is 86 degrees with a 55% humidity and is expected to become a frigid 74 degrees by 4:00 a.m. I am glad we were able to ride across this country with the reasonable weather we had. We were very lucky to escape the nastiness that other Big Riders had to suffer through. Pictures to follow.
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