We had a wonderful nights sleep last night. It's always so nice to be inside. Not only that, but Wayne and Sandra made a great breakfast of eggs, more homemade rolls!!, sausage, toast with jelly, and orange juice- such a great way to start the day! Sandra was off a bit earlier to go to choir rehearsal before church, but we did get to spend more time with Wayne. With the directions they gave us for a more enjoyable ride than going through the city we were off. It sure was beautiful. We went by soooo many horse farms, as Lexington is the horse capital of the world, that made complete sense. It was wonderful, there were so many beautiful horses, amazing farms that were just plain HUGE!!! These farms must be some of the ones owned by the people with horses in the Kentucky Derby-- their land just kept going... for miles. Almost the entire ride was lined with fences on both sides for the horses, and that lasted for at least 15 miles, if not 20+. Some of the horses were running all about playing, but most were just standing there grazing. We saw quite a few babies too! So cute with their "scrawny legs." Although we made a few turns, we had a bit of a tail wind for most of the day. It was a very hilly route, nothing long, nothing outrageously steep, just almost constant ups and downs just to keep it exciting. About 25 miles into the ride, we were going down one of the country roads when I looked to the right and saw something running towards us. It was a squirrel. I yelled out--"Noooo!!" just as Joey saw it running towards him. There was no time to do anything at that point, especially since the squirrel was running full speed- he must have had a death wish. The squirrel managed to almost make it between Joe's front and back wheel, but he got bounced around in his peddles a couple of times before we saw him run free, pass in front of me, and then dart up a tree on the other side of the road. The squirrel was alive, but the poor thing was probably very rattled up. For quite a while after, I was a bit upset because I was worried that the squirrel was damaged internally and wouldn't make it-- as silly as that is, it's just a squirrel right!?! But, being the animal lover that I am, it bothered me. I've seen FAR too many animals- and dogs and cats on the side of the road. The only good thing is that I know that it wasn't our fault that they are there- we're not the ones driving the vehicles. I couldn't bear to think if that little squirrel didn't make it on our account. But, Joey reassured me that the squirrel would probably be fine with a few chuckles at how silly I am. So glad that he understands how I react to things like this.. he knows. We already had 26 miles before getting back out onto hwy 62, which is what we followed yesterday. When we got to the town of Paris, we decided to have some lunch. We stopped at Walmart to get some pasta, sauce, and cheese. Since it was nice outside (a bit windy but temperature wise was nice, especially in the sun) we cooked and ate right there on the benches. As we were eating, we had a little entertainment off in the distance. There was a guy dressed up as Elvis, singing his songs by the main door. Not quite sure why he was there, but it was pretty funny. The little downtown area was very bicycle friendly. The further we rode today, the bigger the hills got. They were much more gradual and drawn out. At one point, an Amish wagon pulled out in front of us. Joey had fun drafting off them for about a quarter of a mile before they turned onto a different road. For some reason, we thought we were never going to make it to the town we wanted to. One sign said 40 miles to the town, then after riding for over 15 miles it still said we had 31 to go.. and a mile later we only had 21... crazy signage. But either way made it to Marysville, despite it feeling like it was forever away. We made a McDonalds stop for a few minutes, and then continued on to the main part of town. There was a nice looooonnngggg descent into the old downtown area in the Ohio River valley; the descent was probably at least a mile long. Marysville was one of the cutest little towns. Although we rode around for quite a while and didn't find any overhangs at churches or any churches that looked like we would be out of the way/ not so obvious at, we did find a pavilion at the rotary club park. It was the perfect place, there were tables and it was dark enough that no one would see us in the shelter, but there were enough street lights that we could see what was going on around us. Since it wasn't quite dark yet and we wanted to see a little more of the downtown area, we rode around for a little while. The downtown was super cute and there was a little park where there was an opening in the flood wall to view the water. The bridge over the river to Ohio was all lit up and looked beautiful, especially with the reflection on the river. We will get to cross that bridge in the morning and be on to our next state. After a beautiful sunny day, it was a very warm night so far-- it was still 65 degrees out at almost 8pm!!!! A perfect night to camp (especially since we'll be under a pavilion to stay out of the rain that is expected)! It was a pretty long day in the saddle, but it was worth it to make it to where we wanted to. Our miles totaled 85.06 today.
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