Day 41 – The day ends as the day begins?

Today was one of our shortest mileages and longest time out on the road—and it was awesome. We stretched the day as long as we could. The morning began at Cogan’s restaurant for breakfast, which was wonderful because we were allowed to order whatever we wanted and it was a nice time for us all to gather together after the rest day. Our little foursome was one of the last ones out of the restaurant, getting a fantastically pokey start to our 50 mile day, and to prolong our morning further, Ane had a flat outside of the restaurant. This town of Burton sure has some witty locals who made us chuckle because at least 3 people offered us advice such as, “You know, if you had nicer bikes maybe you wouldn’t have to change that flat,” or “You know what they say: the day ends as the day begins.” Well thanks!

Ane and I had the honor of wearing Brack and Jean Anne’s McGowen Institute jerseys today. They were plenty large on us, so of course for our photo shoots we had some 80’s flair thrown in with the tie on the side and the side ponytails. By the time we got to Kathy’s waterstop, we decided that it was far too early in the day for the scant number of miles left. I took a wonderful nap alongside Ben, and then we wandered over the War Vet Museum across the street. Aside from providing the only restroom in the area, it was fascinating. Located in an old home used during the Civil War, it was owned an operated by a family, was free to the public, and covered every war from the Revolutionary War on up. It was complete with an intricate model train in the basement, a diorama-style reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg, and each of the four floors were packed with thousands of artifacts that were all donated.

Eventually we continued on into camp, and finally made it in after a stop at Taco Bell and a brief stop for Michael Yee’s broken spoke. It was after five by the time we got in, and even if we hadn’t had all of the fun we did today, our pokiness was well worth the effort by the look of sheer disbelief on Scott’s face that we were just then pulling into camp on a 60 mile day.

Camp is a decent campground tonight, with a nice picnic area and plenty of tent space. After dinner catered by Boston Market and a Rider’s meeting, I found myself relaxing on our thermarests hanging out. That combined with some Ane and Liz time, was the perfectly lazy ending to a lazy day.