July 16th Day two of the ride

July 16—Day two of the ride to San Diego Chehalis, WA Faith Baptist Church hosting

Woke up at 5 AM to help with breakfast, but I got lucky too many people in the small kitchen let me off the breakfast duty detail. The swelling in my ankle went down significantly over the night. My wrist and thumb on the other hand were still stiff and painful.

We had eggs and homemade cinnamon buns for breakfast, an excellent way to start the day. I checked my bike over and noticed a few more cosmetic blemishes on my bike from the crash. I added a little air to my tires and I was set to go.

The ride began straight up hill, the rest of the hill that the church sits on. Oh what fun. I made it to the top without falling off and having to stop at a traffic light until I reached the top. The first 10 miles of the ride was in Tacoma, which was not much fun. Once we reached the bike path, the beautiful portion of the ride started. I rode most of the way today with Hannah. She was an awesome riding partner, good conversationalist and we rode at a similar pace. There was a really beautiful section of the bike path that was tree lined. I took video on the second half of the ride today. I think the video should be nice. I was in the second group of riders today. My pace was faster today than yesterday, which was surprising because of my accident.

I arrived in Centralia just after noon time in the second group of riders. The first group was hanging out at a little cafe/bar on the main street. The group I was riding with stopped and chatted with them and some folks ordered lunch. The rest of us decided to continue riding to the church. We arrived at Faith Baptist church about 12:45 PM. The church had a large lawn with a swing set. Several of us swung on the swings and/or laid on the lawn in the sun. The van arrived about ½ hour later, at which point the van started shuttling people to the city swimming pool for showers. I took a dip in the pool, it was refreshing.

Came back to the church gathered the laundry together for laundry detail and headed to the laundromat with the laundry crew. There were five large garbage bags. The laundromat was pleasant. There was a young couple with a 3 or 4 year old son. He was very cute and very shy. Sher gave him an M&M. His grandmother came by the laundromat and entertained him while his parents finished their laundry. The group laundry cost nearly $40.00 and took about 2 hours.

The church made a wonderful dinner for us. We ate like kings and queens. After dinner some people hung outside to watch the sunset, while others went into town and the rest of us worked on our blogs or read books.