The wind kept going strong all night long. At one point I woke up and the tent walls were blowing all around, so it was a little hard to fall right back asleep. Joey said that he woke up around 5 and had the same problem. We had our usual oatmeal for breakfast and are happy that we got the big 2.5kg bag in Whitehorse so that we can eat a bigger bowl of it to fill us up and don't have to worry about running out right away. Everyone was moving a little slow this morning. I get a kick out of Papa Mike and Michael because Papa Mike will make Michael his oatmeal and hot cocoa and bring it to his tent, ie breakfast in "bed." That must be nice! There was still a nice wind again this morning, so when we got on the road, we got the first few miles done really quick. For about 7 miles, we were riding right next to the lake, but then the road turned away from it a little and we didn't get quite as good of a view. I was surprised at how fast we made it to Destruction Bay. That first 20 miles flew by. Joe and I waited for a while at the one stop shop building (gas, groceries, bar, restaurant, etc.) for the Michaels to get there. We contemplated getting a box of cereal and milk because it would fill us up, but it was really expensive. Then we thought about treating ourselves to a 2L of ice cream, but that was $15! Joe said there might as well be some gold flakes in the ice cream to have to pay that price. We stopped in the restaurant and decided to split an order of fires. They gave us a good amount of fries and it was such a great treat that we decided we would use grammy's anniversary lunch for July (even though it wasn't an all you can eat buffet like we normally do). We had gotten the email a couple days ago saying it was "Tink time" again (the credit card is a Disney card and has Tink on it!). What a great idea that was-Thanks Grammy!!! Papa Mike ended up treating Michael to a nice lunch too, so it was nice to be able to all eat out together. Joe and I each got cheeseburgers and fries (since we are always craving those while riding for some reason). They also had huge cinnamon rolls there too, so we each ended up getting one of those too because they just looked so good, and believe me they were awesome! The waitress had them cut in half and put on the grill for a few so they had a little crispiness to add to the soft sweet roll. Boy that sure was a great touch! After a fantastic meal we were able to use the wifi there to check our emails and make some updates. We had a really relaxing almost 2 hour lunch break. When we got back on the road, the wind was still helping us right along. We got the next 11 miles to a little place called Burnwash Landing done really quick. After that, the road turned and went away from the lake a little more, so we lost the really strong wind. The nice thing was that the terrain was still pretty flat. To our amazement, Joe and I even found a Yukon licence plate, a full size one this time with the little guy gold panning on it! As if the day wasn't already going great, that just made it even better! We had some rough patches of gravel seal coat to ride over, but were still able to get the rest of the miles for today done pretty fast. We planned on stopping at the rest area that was coming up, so when Joey and I got there we sat there for a while waiting for the Michaels before we set everything up, just in case they felt like going further today. Michael said he wasn't going to ride anymore, even though I think Papa Mike wouldn't have minded going further. Either way, it didn't really matter and since this was a nice spot, we stayed right here. There was a nice flat grassy area with a fire pit already made that worked out perfect. We all got our tents set up and made some dinner. Since we hadn't had rice in a couple days, Joe and I each had a big bowl. We snacked on marshmallows over the fire and enjoyed being to camp a little earlier than normal. After cooking we were a little low on water, so Joe went over to one of the RV's that was at the rest area and they gladly gave him some water. He ended up being over in the RV for quite some time, probably explaining our travels. A little while later a guy in a truck talked to us and mentioned that we were camping right on a section of the original Alaska Highway, which I thought was pretty neat. He worked on the road crew and told us that there was a big construction area up the road about 10k, so that should be "fun" tomorrow. After he left, Joe and Michael had fun trying to make an Atlia and a spear like they had gotten to practice using a few days ago. Let's just say they didn't have much success. While we were enjoying the fire, a nice couple and their little boy walked over to talk to us. They live in Fairbanks and said they were on the way home. They gave us a couple extra apples to enjoy and were on their way. That sure was a good treat too! We went to bed a little earlier than normal, so hopefully we will be able to get an earlier start tomorrow. We rode 45.31 miles today.
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