It was awesome waking in Howardstown in that church pavilion and having almost complete silence. Life is way too infrequently silent, you know? No humming of appliances, no engine noises, no other people milling about…those moments are precious. We pressed snooze for almost an hour before we peeled ourselves out of our sleeping bags, and after a rolled peanut butter, crushed blueberry muffin, and dried banana chip tortilla roll-up for breakfast, we pedaled the easy 1-2 mile warm up before the big climb. I love when these big climbs come in the cool morning hours, not the hot and humid afternoons! It was a relatively easy day. We did have a surprisingly rainy 3-4 hours in the morning but it was ALMOST the enjoyable kind of rain where it’s cooling and not too heavy/pounding. We did stop for shelter under an abandoned building’s porch for a few minutes at one point and it was funny when the next door neighbor came out, got in his truck, drove out of his driveway, turned into the street, turned into our driveway, and stopped to ask us what we were up to. When we said we were getting shelter he then became nice and offered us water or anything else if we needed it. But it was just funny that he drove all that way, when it was probably only 60 feet he’d have had to walk from his front door in that light, sprinkling rain. Guess I’ve lived in Portland for too long!! About 45 minutes later, we warmed up with a hot coffee and a Subway sandwich at an interstate truck stop in Sonora and shortly thereafter shed the GoreTex and had a nice cool afternoon in the low to mid-60’s with pretty easy hills. UNTIL the pavement buckled and cracked and straight up out of the earth rose a steep 20% grade hill. It was short, only about 500 feet long, but it was like we were riding up the other side of the subduction zone where one of earth’s tectonic places dove and scraped under another!! I was proud that I was able to ride up it, though it had to stop TWICE to rest on that short beast of a hill. V was smarter probably to walk up it, but I think walking it and pushing a bike was probably HARDER. V is so strong! At the top we were rewarded with a 1+ hour winding ride atop a big plateau and then we dropped down in the late afternoon to more gently rolling hills and started looking for church pavilions again (no motels here, and remember we have a waterproof tent but prefer to not use it in the rain if we can avoid it because rolling up the wet tent and then riding in the heat/humidity all day long results in a nasty mildewey and stinky tent the next time you unpack it). We pulled over when we saw Josh, a kind dude outside a church who said they didn’t have a a covered pavilion but the next church a mile and a half away did. Before we left he asked if he could pray for us…we said yes and thank you…and he proceeded to passionately pray for our safety on the road and that we enjoy ourselves as well. It was really touching, heartfelt, and meaningful to us, even though Vanesa and I are not religious people. We found the McDaniels-Antioch Church he directed us to and we starters to prep to stay for the night, but together we decided the pavilion was just too dirty. There was dust, pollen, broken branches, and bugs everywhere…a guaranteed nightmare for allergies when sleeping on a picnic table or the ground. So we left and rode on in search of another church to sleep at (we had already finalized our RideWithGPS ride so that is why you’ll see two rides for today). Further on in McDaniels we found a big fire department area with a baseball field and a big covered pavilion, way far back from the road. Perfect!!! Except upon inspection it was dirtier and grosser than the place we’d just left. We continued on and within a couple miles we found the Liberation Church. It’s pavilion was great but right by the road, totally exposed to the strong wind, and also covered in pollen. We ended up deciding to sleep behind the church in a covered parking spot,directly on the asphalt (we did put our tent groundcloth/footprint down for a barrier from rocks to protect our inflatable sleeping pads), and it was out of the wind, under roof cover, not visible from the road, and quiet. The church had a water faucet so we were able to fill our bottles and rinse our clothes and then hang them in a fence to dry in the late afternoon sun. We were able to charge our phones at outlets in the covered pavilion. And we dropped down to sleep comfortably, knowing again that as soon as it got dark that damned light right mounted right above our heads would come on and cause us to have to sleep with our heads covered all night long.