Thursday June 23, 2016

At 1:49 a.m. the Fire Department announced that severe winds and thunder storms were tracking our way. A few people evacuated to the on-site buildings. Sue said she wasn’t moving, Ralf stayed in the tent. Although I was a little concerned, I went back to the tent and went straight to sleep. At 2:45 the thunderstorms started and really heavy winds blew all around us. The tent stayed upright and did not leak. By 3:13 the storm had blown over and we were safe and sound. I slept really well until the alarm went off at 5:30. We didn’t get up straight away as there was another small thunderstorm going through.

I was surprised to see that most of the tents were still standing, only one seemed to have broken poles. Incredibly the two tents that I assisted in erecting were still standing and the owners survived the night.

The five porta potties did not survive! As I was standing in line for the one loo, I wondered in my sleepy state why they had removed four potties in the night, when I realized I was looking at the upended bottoms of the potties.  I wanted to get a photo of the upended porta potties, but a couple of the guys stood them back up – yuck not sure that was a good idea.

After a very interesting night, we put away the wet tent and headed out later than usual at 7:35. We had a great breakfast provided by the “Pink Ribbon Girls” – supporting Breast Cancer Research. Five items for $5.00 choice of a piece of fruit, bagel or donut, boiled egg, yogurt, coffee or juice. They had so many bananas they were giving everyone two instead of one.

Today was a head down and go ride. How easy it is to fall back into the old habits of “racing” through a ride. It does feel good though to ride a light bike and just go.

The ride to the first rest stop was very nice.

To the second rest stop we had a few miles of “carreretta road” – Cuban style bumpy roads. These kinds of roads are hard on the bum and the hands and of course it was into a headwind.

After the lunch stop we had a tail-wind, a relatively flat smooth road and we motored. I knew the last three miles were going to be uphill. After we cycled through downtown Miamisburg, we headed uphill to the school and our place to camp for the next two nights. As we headed uphill, I told Ralf to meet me at the top and off he disappeared, leaving me in his dust. He is such a good climber there is no point in holding him back. I wasn’t too many minutes behind him, I am getting better.

After setting up the tent, showering and a quick chat with the folks we headed downtown.

Miamisburg is located on the Great Miami River and has some great bike trails. It has a nice waterfront park where we listened to some music.

We walked up and down the main street, there is some work being done to bring the downtown back to its former glory. They had a few empty shops, but they did have one really good outfitters shop, where we could have spent a small fortune. I bought a little black skirt to replace the one I lost in Charlottetown. The skirt is not Merino Wool but it hangs exactly the same as the skirt I lost and will probably wash and dry quicker than my lovely Merino wool skirt – it was on sale for $36.00.

We ate in a pub downtown – fish and chips and a couple of pints of beer.

We got back to the camp and chatted to Dick for a while. He is such a lovely man. We were hoping to meet Cindy, but she had other plans for tomorrow.

Sue asked if I was riding tomorrow. I told her I was planning to go up to the Indian Mound. Sue and Deb said that sounded like a good idea and we could all go together with Sue’s sister Pat who lives locally and will drive us. We are going out for breakfast, and then heading to the Indian Mound and back to the Outfitters Store.

Both Deb and Sue have climbed Kilimanjaro and I want to learn more about that. I am not sure I want to do it yet, but I might add it to my bucket list along with Macchu Picchu.