I did an organized ride in the area. It's getting cooler here too (actually the temperatures have been cool most of the summer) so I started with arm and knee warmers. Chuck Harris was there at the start selling his wonderful mirrors - which I've been coveting for some time now - so I'm now the proud owner of a Chuck Harris mirror (sturdy, super-light, and made from recycled materials). After check-in closed, Chuck rode the 33-mile loop with a trailer full of mirrors, and sold them at convenient locations!

Between our trip to the race, teaching aerobics, storm damage earlier in the week, and general worn-outness, I hadn't been on the bike in 12 days. The century option (TDD 10) was out of the question for me, this time. As it was, the 80 mile option had 4639 feet of climbing, which is a little deceptive, because almost all of it is in the first 50 miles.

It was a really perfect day, sunny, hardly any wind, never got too cold or too hot. It was a little eerie to ride by all the storm damage when the weather was so beautiful. The only power lines that were still down were right in town where the ride started, but we saw lots and lots of trees that had fallen across the roads and been cleared off, and three houses that trees had fallen on (luckily, all of them took glancing blows and only lost the very edge of their roofs). Luckily for us, the start location and the food stops had power.

The ride took us through rolling woodlands and farms. Oddly, there were lots of Amish buggies out as I drove to the start, but we didn't see any buggies during the ride. After the lunch stop, the 80 mile option followed the Mohican River while the century route climbed back out of the valley. Myself, I was glad to see the road flatten out, because my legs were spent. I heard a number of pretty strong-looking riders on the 80-miler say the same thing. Actually my upper body was just as spent, since I started the ride sore from Thursday's trail clean-up and Friday's push-ups.

But I finished, and finished smiling . Considering how sore I was yesterday morning starting out on the ride, I feel pretty good today

Now it's time to clean my bike up a little and get it packed up to go to Dallas!