The overnight bike camping trip tried to happen, but didn't

[Tri Girl]

the title should read:
The overnight bike camping trip that tried to happen, but didn't. I wish I could change that.

A friend and I had planned an overnight mini-tour this weekend. We were going to ride 45 miles to a state park, camp out, then ride back home. We knew a couple things: there was going to be a 25 mph headwind on the way down, but a 35 mph tailwind on the way back home and everytime we get together for an adventure, we always wind up with more than we asked for (and that was especially true today).
Here's a (not so) brief run-down of what went right and wrong today:

difficult headwind
beautiful sunshine
great roads
even better trails
found a quarter
rear brake rubbing on friend's bike- fixed
rear rack rubbing on friend's back wheel (rubbed so bad it wore the metal smooth but didn't harm the tire
fixed the rack/rigged it as best we could- thought we could make it 17 more miles
made it to our lunch stop and ate lunch
more brutal headwind
more beautiful sunshine
got to police blocking road because of a grass fire
7 mile hilly detour (part of it walking 1/4 mile on a gravel road)
brutal headwind
heavy traffic
rear rack rubbing again
miles clicking by- feeling good
within 11 miles of the state park- woo hoo
rear rack breaks, bolts fall off, irreparable
duct tape rack so back wheel will spin freely
load all bags on my bike
within 3 miles of another campground
walk 3 miles on a gravel road uphill to campground
get to campground and it's on fire (the fire from before spread)
fire trucks everywhere- no camping
bike can't be ridden, campground on fire, tired ladies
called husband and he drove the 30 min. to come get us

Despite the difficulty we kept laughing and "bright side-ing" it. We had a blast, and even tho we were disappointed we didn't make it, we had a blast anyway. Plus, we think of it as a good training day: riding 50 miles in a tough headwind the whole way with a 60 lb bike (bike + load).

Here's a couple pictures from the day:
1. starting the day optimistically
2. ZOO! I love our city's zoo
3. riding one of our city trails- one I hadn't ridden before
4. the fire that caused the detour and was burning in the campground
5. my bike and the fire trucks in the background