Today's Miles = 34.5
Average Speed = 13.8 mph
Maximum Speed = 31.5 mph
Total Miles = 4301.1

Whenever I camp with other cyclists, I'm always the latest sleeper out of the bunch. Usually I am up at least an hour later than anyone else sorting my pictures and writing these journal updates, so morning always seems to come too early for me. So when I awoke and Richard was still in his tent, I was surprised. When I ate breakfast and packed my camp and he hadn't woken, I thought he must be lazy. But after I had spent an hour reading a magazine and he still hadn't shown up, I started to wonder what the proper protocol is when you have a dead French-Canadian on your hands.

Richard and I set out with different destinations for the day. I intended to ride as far as the town of Sisters so I could rest overnight before climbing McKenzie Pass, while Richard was planning on taking a different fork out of Sisters and going partway up Santiam Pass before camping for the night. Either way, we were both going the same way for the first seventy miles so we started out heading west together.

When we got to the town of Prineville we stopped for a meal and I used a payphone to check for messages. Lynn and I had previously talked about meeting today, but when last we had spoken it had been left ruled out. I was pleasantly surprised then to find a message from her that the meeting was on again, and that she was on her way east to find me.

Somewhere between Prineville and Redmond, Lynn's eastbound auto caught up with us westbound cyclists and I said farewell to Richard before loading my bike and bags into the car. I guess I decided to take an afternoon playing hooky from my ride, and I didn't think twice about taking a ride into Sisters. Technically I guess I cheated my way out of forty miles or so, but at this point I'm so close to the end I don't think it matters.

Lynn and I got a campground near Sisters and spent the afternoon grocery shopping, hiking, playing with Ginny, and plain old camping out. It sort of felt like a "trial version" of returning to a life that doesn't require pedaling every day.