Tuesday, June 14th .... It was supposed to be easier than yesterday. It is 4 mile shorter so we are only riding 94 miles!  There is also fewer big hills.

This day actually got its start around 1:00 a.m. when Casey's and my cell phones woke us up with a severe weather alert!  Severe thunderstorms with damaging hail and up to 80 mph winds were expected.  This was also in conjunction with the threat of severe flooding!  Then we were trying to go back to sleep with the noise of the storm booming outside. In the morning there were reports of flooding in town as well as trees down and power outages.  At 7:15 we left as planned.  We had no delays and saw no damage or flooding.

Within a half mile of departure we encountered the first of two big hills for the day.  By the end of the fourth mile we were into the second and final hill.  While we had no more "big" hills to climb, we had many short but steep hills.  Most were 1/2-3/4 of a mile in length but still had 5-10% grades!  By days end we climbed 100 feet less on Tuesday than Monday!  Less climbing and shorter yes but not enough to brag about.  

Bob M (the oldest rider at age 84) and I rode the last 40 miles together and we enjoyed our time together.