July 5 - Arrival!

Woke with an amazingly refreshed after only about 4 hours of sleep.  I could have slept more but thought it would be best to write and shower.  Cooper looked at me as if I was crazy for being up already.  He knows me well.  I like my sleep.

While we were packing up, Cooper hid in shady places.  It was early but already warming up a lot.  Riding wasn't as bad once we got going.  It was easier to ride than to stay put if you had to be outside. We rode for quite a way in the high 90*s before stopping for lunch.  We had McDonalds and Cooper laid on the hard bench sleeping as much as he could but at least glad he would be cool for the time being.

We took another break a while later because temps had reached 103*.  We pulled up under an overpass and just sat there for a while.  It was ok because the air moved a lot under there.  One person stopped to see if we were ok.  

The heat from my engine as we sat under the overpass.

We kept going and counting down our miles till reaching our destination.  99 miles, 88 miles, 77 miles, 66 miles....  

We stopped for gas one last time and bought some cherries and mangos from a fruit stand in the parking lot.  We met more people, gave out more cards and set our sites on the last 11 miles.

We reached the Women On Wheels® 25th Annual Ride-In at about 6 pm.  Bob Cross was the first person we saw.  It was great to see him.  Jesse overheated right in front of the hotel.  I became frustrated at how hard it was to locate our room.  Once we got inside I think we finally relaxed.  I was so hot and sweaty, all I wanted to do was get clean and into something other than long pants and my smelly shirt.  

Cooper and I both showered first.  He needed to get white again if we were going to have white bedding.  No questions asked.  We went to meet the other people at the ride-in after our shower.  Everyone was so glad to see us.  Even folks who hadn't met us yet had heard about Cooper.  

It was a nice first night.  We didn't stay out too late. When we got back to our room, Cooper was glad to settle in.  It was a nice room with two queen beds.  Cooper would start out the night on the bed with me and Jesse, and by morning he had the other one to himself.  Very cute.

299 Miles traveled today - with a grand total of 3702.6 miles from MA to the Ride-In.  Now we can EXHALE.  We made it!!!