Ride to the Rockies, Day Sixteen
I had a restful sleep and headed downstairs to have breakfast in the restaurant dining room. I sat with Mary and Charles, good friends from the club who hailed from Louisiana. Charles had once operated a tugboat on the Mississippi and so we had boating stuff in common to talk about. We had a nice conversation while I was downing a bowl of oatmeal with raisins, dried cranberries, walnuts, and honey gathered from the extensive breakfast bar. I limited myself to my usual oatmeal as I had lost seven pounds so far on the ride and didn't want to gain it all back here—easy to do with all the activities revolving around lunch stops and big buffet dinners each night in the banquet hall. Plus, to avail myself of the entire breakfast buffet would cost me eight dollars with coffee two buck, where the oatmeal with coffee would only run me four dollars, keeping my budget on the frugal end of the scale. Besides, I could never eat my money's worth out of an all-you-can-eat breakfast bar and would be mostly wasting the money on it. That morning, however, Charles insisted on buying my meal, so it cost me nothing but some delightful conversation.
I went upstairs and changed into my riding clothes in anticipation of another group ride, this one to a covered bridge, one of the longest in the country, and a stop at an unusual round barn with a lunch stop at a Dairy Queen. I took photos of the group at stops and the bridge and some video of the riders going through the covered bridge for the club website. At lunch I opted for a small simple cheeseburger and a diet drink with no fries, keeping with my plan to not regain my former weight.
Covered bridge in southern Indiana
The group stopped at a unique round barn for a group photo
The group returned to the inn about mid-afternoon and I killed some time escaping the heat by swimming in the pool with other VJMC members and Randy, my right hand who proofreads the magazine articles for me, and her husband, Warren Mayes.
After the swim there was just enough time to grab a shower and check Facebook before the big banquet. I jumped here and there adding to my store of event photos, then sat down to some salad and the least filling things from the thirty foot long buffet table. After dinner there was more socializing on the outside patio where I continued my photographic duties between beers. It was still not long after solstice so it got dark quite late and I didn't get back to my room and hit the sack until after eleven.
Miles so far 6464.1
