Final day of riding! (6-27, Friday)

(Sam)

Well, my memory is a little fuzzy from this being one day after, but I can try.

We started the day in a moderately dry tent, with a wet rain fly from the dew. Then, we did our normal packing of luggage, filling of water, and the preparation of supplies. Our food was in the elementary school though, so we had to walk over there and eat. It wasn't that bad of a walk. I'd like to have taken the bikes, but mom decided she was on her bike too long, so we didn't. Then, we went off to do our 43 mile ride to Lexington.

Another sunny morning for our last departure.

It was pretty simple. A very small, gradual downhill about the whole way. Luckily they still had PALM personnel standing by the road, waiting for bikers to stop. The ride (get ready for some math here.) like I said before was 43 miles. We averaged our pace at about 10 miles an hour throughout the week, so it would take us about 4 hrs and 30 minutes. We left at a little before 7, so we had plenty of time to stop. We stopped at about every 5 miles, and every PALM stop. Then, we just kept going until we made it to Lexington. 

(Amy)

I'd like to say that our shortest ride of the week was the easiest for me, but it sure wasn't.  Whereas the rides in the rain were hard mentally, this ride was just hard for my body.  I think 5 days is just about my limit on a bike.  My legs, my butt, it just all hurt and no part of me wanted to pedal that day.  But, we did.  We  got an early start just before 7am and stopped every 5 miles or so just to stop and give everything a break.  It made me feel better to hear other riders moaning and groaning at the rest stops too.  I think everybody was ready to call it a week.

This is the marking on the roads that we followed all week.  

After a morning of fields and houses, we ran across a VFW with a really cool helicopter in front!

Crosswell was the first town we came to.  Apparently they are famous for their Swinging Bridge.  It's a long cabled foot bridge.  If you get on it with crazy people like we did who jumped and swayed, the bridge sure starts swinging.  I thought for sure I'd be seasick for the rest of the ride!

The nice ladies of Crosswell had a table set up by the bridge with water, cookies, watermelon - a good break.

Shortly after Crosswell, we finally made it to Lexington.  

Our last day of riding ended up at 45 miles in just about 5 hours, arriving at noon.  That have us about an hour to find our bags and look around town before the parade of riders thru town.

Just a fraction of the bags that filled the 3 moving vans that transported our stuff each day.

We made it!  That's Lake Huron behind us!

The view of Lake Huron at the end of the route!

We didn't get a picture of the parade since we were right in the middle of it, and Jeff and the boys were stuck in traffic trying to get to is, but seeing 820 people in red shirts filling the streets of a small town is just a pretty neat site.   And not until the parade did we ever see ALL those people all in one place during the week, so it was sort of neat to see how many people were actually out on the roads with you.  

After the parade, they gave us a lunch of subs, chips, carrots, fruit and cookies.  We visited a bit with people that we had met and then found Jeff and packed up to go to Sanford.  We had a Loons game to catch with my whole family that night!

We made it to the end!   We rode all 307 miles on our own.  Never had to get picked up once.  It feels good to be done, but it's a great feeling to know that we did it.  Will we be filling out an application for PALM 34 when they come out in January??  Only time will tell!

Thanks to all for your interest in and support for our trip!