It rained off and on throughout the night, and poured in the early morning. I woke up a couple times from the rain and was really hoping that we weren't going to have to ride in the rain all day. Luckily, by the time we woke up, the rain had stopped and the sun was beginning to come out. We all decided to take our time this morning so that our tents would have a chance to dry out in the sunshine. Trudy let us use the washrooms again this morning, also let us relax inside for a little bit. She even made some coffee and tea with honey for us. It sure was a wonderful treat in the morning. Yugi had never had tea with honey before and seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately he didn't sleep very well because his little one man tent let in water and his sleeping bag isn't very warm. He fell asleep on the couch for a few minutes and when he woke up he said "I never want to leave," we all thought it was pretty funny because we felt the same. We said our goodbyes to Yugi as we were packing up our tents. By the time we were ready to go, had said goodbye to Trudy and started heading towards the grocery store it was already after 10. Our fist stop was the grocery store; we all decided to get cereal and milk for breakfast. We ate at the little tables inside the store (almost every grocery store up here that we have seen has had tables inside) and then proceeded to get a few more groceries for the next few days (mainly cookies for us). Afterwards we headed back over to the lodge to sit on the porch for a while. We used the internet for a little bit and Joe tried tightening some of the loose spokes on that rear wheel. While we were sitting there relaxing, we saw Trudy again! We started riding out of town around 12:30. The sun went away for a little while, so it was really cold, but that didn't last long. The sun came back out and it warmed up a little. About 5 miles outside of town was a rest area/ interpretive site, so we stopped again. It was so nice to just take our time and not be in any kind of rush. While we were looking at Teslin Lake and reading some of the informational signs, we saw a cyclist going by, luckily he saw our bikes and came down to talk to us. His name is Ken and he is riding from Anchorage to Fort St. John, but has to be back to work in August so he can't go any further than that. He has been hoping to meet another cyclist who is older than he is, and he finally did-Papa Mike (but only by one year), so he was happy. We talked with him for quite a while before getting back on the road. Not too far after stopping at the rest area was the Teslin Tlingit Herritage Center, where I saw photos of the Tiki statues outside and wanted to go there. Turns out, this was a really fun part of the day. When we got there, the lady was nice enough to point us to the homemade Bannock (deep fried rolls that kind of have a consistency like the fried dough you would get at the fair). They were SO good! She explained that it was a local thing. We ate it with a little butter and Jam or pb. I was in heaven! Joe and I each ate 3 rolls each because of it. While we were inside, it started to rain but by the time we went back outside it was sunny again, so somehow we were able to dodge the rain! We talked with the lady who worked there for quite a bit and she gave us some tips on where a good place to camp for the night would be. She is also a pretty big into fishing so she shared some tips on fishing in this area and even gave Mike and Mike a couple lures and a fly! It turned out to be a wonderful stop. We rode for a few more miles and then stopped at another rest area to use the outhouse. We've never had a day where we stopped so many times within the first 15 miles, but it sure was awesome to just take our time and have a very leisurely start to the day. Since we planned to ride to Johnson's Crossing today, we only had a little over 30 miles to do today so it worked out perfect to have a slow day today. For all of the ride today we rode next to Teslin Lake. It is fun because Michael and Joey would ride fast up front and I would ride with Papa Mike at a nice comfortable speed. At one point today we had some climbing to do and Joey got way ahead of all of us. So, it was the three of us riding for a while. At that point we only had about 6 miles left to get to our destination. When we finally saw Joey at the top of the hill, we could tell his bike was laying over and he was standing off to the side of the road in the grass. At first we weren't sure what he was doing, but then we looked at the side of the road we figured it out. There were a TON of wild strawberries! So for the last 20 minutes or however long he was waiting, he had just been snacking on the little strawberries. Papa Mike and I stopped part way up the hill because there were just so many strawberries. We probably were there picking wild strawberries for an hour or so. There were so many that we couldn't even eat them as fast as we were picking them. It brought back good memories of picking strawberries at Cousin Suzie and Ronnie's farm with Michelle, Courtney, Amy, Lindsay and Larry when we were kids. And boy, they sure were sweet! It was so hard to stop picking them and get back on the road. When we finally did, we rode to the top of the hill and then stopped again because there were more strawberries. We could tell where Joey and Michael had been because the areas were completely cleared of strawberries. Every once in a while, since Joey and I first got on the Cassiar Highway, we have seen the wild strawberries here and there. But never once have we seen this many all in one place before. There was probably 25-30 yards of just a ton of little strawberry plants. Our day just kept getting better and better, that's for sure. Since Papa Mike and I stopped for so long to pick strawberries, Joe and Michael went ahead. After we started riding again it was so hard to not want to stop and pick more strawberries when we saw them. We had a nice downhill and a bridge to cross going into Johnson's Crossing. We could see the rest area with bathrooms below as we were crossing the bridge. Papa Mike and I stopped at the little gas station/campground to see if Joe and Mike had stopped there. We didn't find them, but we did meet a nice guy with his 4 month old baby sled dogs! They were SOOOO cute! Once we left, we continued down the road to find the turn off for the rest area. We knew they boys were down there because Michael stuck his American Flag from the back of his bike at the corner of the turn so we knew where to go. It was a prefect place to camp right next to the river with a great view of the bridge. There was even a really clean out house and a brand new bear proof garbage bin. We all worked together to get a fire going, gathering wood, and getting rocks to make a fire pit. The wind was still going pretty good, so the mosquitos were again, not as bad as they have been in days past. Papa Mike tried to fish again and we got camp all set up. We had pasta and spaghetti sauce again for dinner and between the 4 of us ate an entire bag of marshmallows (the fire had the perfect coals for roasting!). Joe and Mike killed some time throwing rocks into the river and Joe tried to hit the beams on the bridge (which was about 150 yards away). It was very entertaining; Joe even hit the bridge 3x in a row. What an incredible day, again! The past few days have just been so wonderful! We rode 35.25 miles today. I sure am enjoying these lighter days and really taking our time. Riding with Papa Mike and Michael has just been so great.
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