The first 25 miles were nice because we had cloud cover and no sun. It was really nice riding because it was mostly flat and the roads were nice. I guess we must have been out of Van Buren county! It also rained last night so that helped keep the temps down a bit.
After a breakfast stop where I had pancakes...but you already knew that...the sun started to come out. There was a stiff south wind today and for the most part we didn’t go straight into it but anytime we did it really stunk. In Houghton they had a “red neck pool” so we took a little dip. It’s just straw bales with liner in them. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a sileage bag!!
As the afternoon went on it got hot pretty warm. I hit my top speed for the week getting to 39.5 mph on this awesome downhill. We rode to Geode state park and I’m guess that this is a beautiful place and would be a cool but challenging ride in and out of the park. It was definitely challenging today but mostly because of how many people there were! I waited in quite the long line for a brat but it was worth it. When I got back to meet up with Ray I found him asleep on the grass. I guess he needed a nap! As I was leaving the park I found my favorite Air Force guy Steve! We have seen each other every year for the past theee years. He’s official retirement is this coming Monday so congrats to him.
I also have to give a shout out to the state troopers on the ride. They are out there every day and are always blaring good music. They seem like a fun group and they do a great job keeping us safe!
Again today we ran into towns that really didn’t have that much fun stuff to do. It makes the day less exciting when the towns don’t have good entertainment. With the sun being as hot as it was we pushed through the last 15 miles after the state park. When we got to Burlington they had a big welcome banner and people cheering for us. Now this typically means that you’re “done” for the day but we had to keep riding...a lot!! It took us at least 5 more miles to get to our camp. We had 76 miles for the day when it was supposed to be only 69. Talk about bonus miles!
As we were riding this afternoon and it was hot I told Ray that all I wanted was for some people to put out sprinklers for us. Riding through a sprinkler on a hot day is the absolute best. Well we turned a corner and there it was....the best sprinkler ever. The fire department hung a huge hose from the ladder and it was dumping water on us. It was cold and it was awesome!! I would have ridden through that thing a couple times. Well done West Burlington Fire Department!!
Our camp was in a great big park. Lots of shade and tons of space to spread out. We had a great spot close to a water fountain and under some trees. Burlington is known for “snake alley” which has been dubbed the world’s crookedest street. They were have a challenge to see if you could make it to the top. We had planned to do this but we realized we’d have to ride another 2+ miles just to get there. After setting up our tent we decided a shower was more important. We talked to Shaun and Kayla and they had done it. Kayla did it twice because wanted to make sure she could finish it before her dad video taped her. We watched her video and she killed it. Even passed a guy! I guess that Colorado has benefits! We did go down later and watch people ride up it. I think we would have been able to do it for sure!
I had my first ice cream of the week outside of Thelma’s while listening to some of the bands. Burlington is right on the river so we got to see where we were heading tomorrow!!
Going to be an early night because tomorrow is the last day and we almost always get out earlier on the last day. Everyone is in a hurry to get home. 
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