i just checked weather.com and it says it’s 91 degrees but feels like NINETY NINE.

so we’ve been biking this week, in preparation for our trip.  this morning we didn’t leave till 8:58 a.m.  it was already very humid and sweltering.  yesterday we went all the way to pawnee (23 miles round trip) and today kevin thought we should go to lake sangchris.  he was fairly certain about how to get there.

we got on east lake drive and we came to a road and i said, should we turn onto this, and he said sure.  and we biked and biked and once were were out in the country there was very little shade.  we finally got to route 29, just south of rochester, and we didn’t know which way to go.

luckily i had my phone with me.  i called amy, but i know she was busy outside gardening.  so i called christine.  christine is always there for me.

i told her where we were and that we were trying to get to lake sangchris.  she google-mapped it and gave us directions and we headed down the road.

and then she called again – she’d had the time to look up the lake sangchris website, and we were heading in the wrong direction.  no worries, though, we hadn’t gone that far.  we headed back and down yet another country road.

yesterday there was a gravel truck spreading new gravel on the road to pawnee.  it suck riding in gravel.  today when we got on the right road to lake sangchris, it was gravel.  it seems that many of the country roads are covered with a layer of gravel, and much of it looks like fresh gravel.

i’m getting less freaked out about riding on gravel, but i still don’t like it.

we rode…and rode…and rode some more.  we finally got to the place where christine said to turn to get to the lake and i had been whining quite a lot at that point and now i realize i was a lot like the chubby russell in “up,” one of the best movies i’ve ever seen.  kevin said “do you want to go back?’  we could have taken new city road away from the lake but i said, no, let’s keep going.  or maybe i didn’t even say it, but kevin turned towards the lake anyway.

and we rode and we rode and we rode some more, and finally saw a little of the lake, and then a bigger part of it, and we stopped at the very first place you could stop.  there was a picnic bench with a couple sitting on it and i was so tired that i wasn’t even the slightest bit curious about what their earnest conversation was about, or if it really was even earnest.

kevin took this picture of me, to prove that i’m not just making it all up.  i can’t believe i’m smiling.

i sent the picture to christine, who i had to call again to see if there was a faster route back home.  we’d gone almost 17 miles to get to the lake, but we knew we’d ridden out of our way.  she said she’d work on it and call me back, and kevin and i rested, but not long enough.  they didn’t even have a drinking fountain, and my water in my bottle was quite warm by that time.

i took a photos of kevin.  it needs to replace the photo i have of him on my caller id on my phone; i was furiously deleting photos yesterday and deleted his photo by mistake.

Christine called back and told us a better route and we started off…and when we passed the “Lake sangchris” sign, kevin suggested that we stop and take another picture.  ANOTHER PICTURE!??? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND??? LET’S JUST KEEP GOING SO WE GET HOME SOMETIME TODAY!!!

that’s what i was thinking way back in the very back of my brain, anyway – the thought wasn’t even able to fully develop in my overheated skull, much less come out of my mouth.  so we stopped and parked the bikes and kevin took one more picture.

we stopped at the group camp office and got some water.  it was so fabulous to be in the air-conditioned office that i just wanted to stay there all day, but we had to keep moving.

and so we rode…and rode…and kept riding…and finally came to the road where christine said to turn.  ROAD CLOSED said the sign.  we tried it anyway, figuring, how bad could it be?

we rode over gravel, up and down hills, and the farther we went the more i thought THERE’S NO WAY I’M GOING TO TURN BACK.

we finally got to a shady part, and we kept going…and then the road did stop.  up ahead was a high wall of bushes.  clearly they didn’t want anybody going anywhere.

luckily there was a short berm over on the side, and kevin climbed over it and said it was ok and we carried the bikes over and through a little grassy place and there was the road again.

so we rode &rode&rode some more and by now it was VERY VERY VERY hot, and i kept thinking that i was NOT GOING TO MAKE IT.

but we did.  we came home and jumped in the lake, which actually was only refreshing pretty far down.  up near the surface it was more like very warm bath water.  we rode for a total of 3 hours, 40 minutes, and 28.9 miles.  our ride home was only 12 miles thanks to christine.

and now i’m sitting here in the air conditioning and things are very, very good.  all the animals are lying around sleeping and it’s tempting to join them instead of starting in on all the things that i needed to do earlier today.

ok then,

thursday grace.