It's a down day...we are only doing 80+ miles

First things first: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SCOTT! You are a wonderful son and we love you very much. Love, Mom and Dad

This is a couple of clips from yesterday's ride.

Yesterday was a long day: 99.09 miles on the ponies, lost for an hour or so in the evening, ( at least we were in the van) late supper, and slow Internet made for a short night. But everyone was up and at 'em this morning at 6 am as usual. We did breakfast in our room (oatmeal, egg sandwiches, bananas and OJ) Dan said the coffee from the hotel tasted burnt and old. Makes me glad I'm not a coffee drinker! They got on the ponies and were off at the start by 7:15 am. Karen and I took breakfast at the little diner, Twix and Tween, while doing our laundry at the Scrub Board next door. Both came highly recommended by the guy at the motel we stayed at. Come to find out that he worked at or partly owned each of them. HA. We are meeting such interesting people along the way. The breakfast was good though and everyone now has a case of clean clothes.

The team started off today's ride going through the Talledega Forest. What a beautiful, winding road. It smelled so fresh and everything was so green. There wasn't much traffic, either. The riders did get a butt massage though as the road was a bit pitted.

Once they passed through, the team continued to fly up and over many crests. We ended up eating lunch after 50+ morning miles. Everyone was still feeling good. An interesting account at lunch..the team had just taken off for their afternoon section, when Dan comes flying back in toward us. He had lost his mirror. Now every serious cyclist knows how uncomfortable it is to ride when you can't see what's coming from behind. We all got out and searched to no avail. I know a lot of people say that God doesn't care about our little wants and needs, but I prayed anyways. My co-pilot, Karen took some trash across the parking lot and just "happened" to look down...(I don't think so) she saw the mirror sparkling on the ground, right behind the van. I probably would have run over it when I backed up. We were able to deliver the needed piece to Dan before the first turn out of the city. It's the little things like this that I find fascinating on a trip this long.

So we followed the route and ended up on Hwy 14 into Aliceville. This is a cute little town and we are staying in a Voyager Inn. The manager was so nice and wants to meet the riders. We got two rooms and he let me pay with Dan's credit card. Some of these little burgs only cost 50-60 dollars a night. They are clean, but no amenities. All I got to say is, it sure beats camping!
Some sights along the way included a logging area, a crazy top on a telephone pole, of course we have to have at least one sign of a Piggly Wiggly, and since I love water towers, here's the one from Eutaw, where we ate lunch.

The riders finished at 83 miles for the day, maintaining their bank miles. They averaged 14.5 mph. for the day. They said they felt sluggish in the morning and picked it up during the afternoon. They were in the saddle for 5 hours and 40 minutes. The ponies pulled into the Inn at 2:30 pm.

I've asked Colleen to write a few thoughts on today's blog. She's my hero and is a wonderful friend!

Hi, it's me Colleen, fellow pony rider and sojourner. Today we had another great day on the bike. Wynn brilliantly planned the route so that the majority of our climbing was in the first half of the ride. The way we organize our days on the bike is to ride about 30-40 miles then we take a morning break or "second breakfast" (for the Tolkien fans). That typically consists of a Clif bar and banana and a long drink of something cold, and a potty stop. Then a short jaunt to lunch around the 60 mile mark or so where we meet up with our capable sag support, pull out some lawn chairs and take a nice break and eat sandwiches, cookies, fruit, etc. then, depending on the mileage, we either soldier on to our destination city, or the sag team meets us for a midway break, and then we finish up. The past couple days we have been able to ride right into our hotel, where (can you imagine?) our gracious sag team has already dropped our luggage and are awaiting our arrival.
All the riders have a singular complaint.....sore posteriors. The laments abound especially after 60 miles or so. We are hoping AND praying that this matter will resolve soon. We clean up and take care of our bikes, eat a nice meal and for the most part, sit around staring at our glowing rectangles and hit the hay early. Then it's off again, spinning into a new sunrise.