We woke up nice and early so we could go enjoy the continental breakfast at the hotel. It was great. I had 2 bagels with cream cheese, cereal and milk, biscuits and gravy, eggs, sausage, yogurt, an apple, toast with jelly, 2 donuts, hot chocolate, orange juice, and a mini-muffin. After a great breakfast, we went back to the room to pack up and then before leaving, I went back to breakfast for seconds and to get a few things to go. We were on the road by about 10:20 and were surprised to find that the wind was with us for a while. Our goal was to make it to Ennis which was a little over 70 miles away. Today was the first day in a while that was kind of back to normalcy. It was just the two of us again, and we didn't have any plans on stopping anywhere. As we were riding we rode by a beautiful lake that was so flat it looked like glass. Compared to our ride into Yellowstone, the ride was pretty flat. We had a few hills here and there, but nothing too big. We rode through a national forest that had a lake that was supposedly formed by an earthquake! We stopped for a snack after about 30 miles at a little fly fishing store just outside of the national forest. As we were sitting on the bench outside the store enjoying a pack of yogurt I took to go from the hotel, a very cute doggie came to visit. He walked up to us and dropped his ball because he wanted to play. It was so cute; we'd throw the ball and he would retrieve it and bring it right back to be thrown again. I went inside and found out that the doggies name was Eddy. After we had our yogurt, we each had a donut (also from breakfast at the hotel). We played with the puppy for quite a while before hitting the road again. Not too long after we started to ride again, the wind shifted so that it was actually to our favor. It was so nice to be able to go fast for a change! After about another 20 miles, we decided to stop in a little town called Cameron to eat the oranges we had from the hotel, since we didn't officially have lunch today, just snacks to keep us tided over from our huge breakfast. When we pulled into the only store/bar/cafe in town, we saw a loaded bicycle outside! When we went inside to fill up on water, we met Ian, a British guy who is riding from Seattle, WA to Plymouth, MA from May-July. We chit chatted for a little bit and then Joe and I went outside to sit on the bench and eat our oranges. Joey and I were pretty excited to see another person touring, however since we happened to be on part of an Adventure Cycling Route, our chances of seeing someone were definitely higher. After our stop, we only had about 12 miles until the town we planned to stop in, and it didn't take us very long at all to get there. When we arrived in Ennis, we made our way through town to find a grocery store. On the way we passed a really nice park which we figured would be the perfect spot to camp. The main street area was really nice and very western looking. After riding through town we found a grocery store and decided to get some steak to add to our rice, we also got a half gallon of ice cream (it is our 3/4 anniversary today, so it was a prefect excuse for ice cream!) While we were leaving the store we met a kid who was moving from VT to AK, which we thought was pretty cool. We found some nice tables in a small park next to the chamber of commerce where we decided to cook dinner. Unfortunately, when dinner was almost finished cooking, the sprinklers came on and we got wet. Luckily though, we were able to move the table back far enough to keep from getting we from the first round of sprinklers. While we were enjoying our ice cream however, another set of sprinklers decided to go off, and these ones were right next to us. Needless to say, we got a little wet. So, we packed everything up really quick and headed for the park we saw on the way into town. When we got there, we saw a sign that we didn't see before: No camping or overnight parking, $100 fine. We were pretty bummed, especially since there were nice bathrooms, picnic tables, and a shelter. After eating the rest of our ice cream, we set out to find a new spot to call home for the night. We found a church that was near the school that we decided would work. There were sprinklers in the ground, but we were crossing our fingers that they wouldn't be going off tonight. We went to bed pretty early because we were both still tired for some reason. Our miles totaled 77.08 today.
|
|