Sorry, Another bike post!

I just got back from my Reach the Beach bike ride.  Oh my goodness.  What an AMAZING experience.  Sarah and I drove out to Amity on a gorgeous morning, back country roads and peace and quiet with NO kids!  We got to the high school to check in and meet our riding pal, Mike.  We headed out and were in for beautiful (hot) weather and rolling hills on farm roads.  Our first stop was in Sheridan where we fueled up with some yummy food and a potty stop, then off to Grand Ronde.  Again, beautiful back roads, amazing weather and great company and an easy beautiful ride.  Grand Ronde was our halfway point.  It also brought a yummy hot lunch of loaded baked potatoes and soup (soup?  It's 90 degrees out!) that were hot but tasty.  After a short break, we headed out for the hard leg of our trek.  This was much harder for all of us.  It felt like lunch was sitting like a brick in the bottom of my stomach and I was spinning my wheels not getting anywhere.  There was a wicked head wind that made it feel like we weren't moving at all, despite peddling as fast as I could!  I finally got my second wind as we were coming up to stop #3.  We made a quick stop there and kept on trucking.  This is where the "hard" part was.  After a nice smooth downhill came the uphill.  It was pretty steep.  I got off and walked, but Sarah pulled through the whole thing.  I was amazed.  She did awesome!  After that it was pretty flat.  We trekked into the finish line in just under 4 hours!  Of course, that was actual riding time.  It didn't count our breaks, but we did it in the time we wanted.  Yeah us!!  After some fun freebies and a delicious dinner, we headed back to the car and came home.  It was an amazing and empowering experience.  I'm already looking forward to next year.  I think we'll attempt the 75 miler and I'll have my Mike come with me too!  I just kept thinking how much better my experience would be if he was with me.  Next year...