Monday, August 20: 80 miles
Monday dawned cool and cloudy. I even wore my clear lenses. We rode with Michael and Tamara, a couple we know from the tandem club, for much of the day. Got some invaluable lessons on paceline riding from them. I’m always glad to learn new riding tips. The terrain was more interesting on the second day. We were gradually climbing to 1000′ elevation, so there were more hills (both up and down!) which made for more interest. We had one stretch where the road crews were holding traffic for a pilot car as they paved a 5 mile stretch. It meant that when the bikes finally got to go through, there was about a half an hour on newly paved roads before any cars showed up. 
It was very pleasant.
We lost Michael and Tamara as the ride started its more serious climb to Packwood. But, we caught up with Thyce and Amy from the club almost immediately thereafter and finished with them. Along the way we stopped at the head of a driveway in the middle of nowhere. An 8 year old boy came riding up to the four of us and asked us if we wanted to go riding with him on a new trail he found. He was so sweet. He obviously doesn’t get a lot of drop-in company.
In Packwood we camped on the Fire Station’s lawn. The wind kicked up strongly, threatening to blow us all down. A storm was coming, but we didn’t know when it would hit. Sheila actually spent the early evening in our lawn chairs (yes we brought those too!) inside her sleeping bag, reading. It finally calmed down and we went to bed.