Sea-to-Sea NA Day 48 For once the weather report was right on, we had winds from the ENE, in other words a head wind for most of the day. The day started with me sleeping an hour longer than I usually do. I keep my strapless watch in the tent and when I checked it it was 5:55 but when Rita came back a minute later it was 6:56 and she reminded me that I would miss breakfast if I didn’t get going. I had not changed it to Eastern Time yet. It was around 8 when I finally got on the road and most riders had left, only the sweep team and a contingent of young riders remained. I was going to ride with them but after a few delays I set out on my own. I determined I would stop a coffee shop after the ½ waypoint. The headwind was about as strong as the tail wind had been yesterday. When I ride a long ride such as today I break it down into sections; for instance at the 15 km point I tell myself I’ve already done 10% of the ride, at 30 I’ve done 1/5 of it, at 40-45 I eat something often a banana since they are the heaviest in my jersey pocket. And so it goes thru the ride at the 80km mark I tell myself only 70 more to go - just 2 ½ hours and continue to count down to the finish. My second item to eat would be half of my peanut butter/honey end crust; which was in the pouch under my seat. Getting it out is not difficult, opening the zip lock bag is a single hand and teeth affair. Getting half the sandwich out and holding it while I put the other half into the jersey pocket is a little trickier. Things where going well, arms resting on the aerobars, sandwich to be eaten in the right hand, baggy and other half in the left but then all of a sudden a great big bump in the road heading my way, bang, control the bike, sandwich in right hand goes into orbit, left hand hold the remaining half securely. S—t so much for a good sandwich. I got most of the other half down eating from within the bag but then the constant jarring even popped the remaining last bite out of my hand like a watermelon seed being shot from between two fingers. Latter the baggy of Fig Newtons went much better; I held the baggy tight in the left hand while at the same time holding onto my handlebar. The half way-point came and went and I started to look for either bikes at a café or just a café, I finally saw one quite a bit latter but was already past it and in keeping with my ‘don’t go back’ policy I kept on figuring I would see another spot. By the time that came I was well over the 100km mark and just 1.5 hours to go so I thought I would just stop in the town where we were going, Richmond, and get something there. In the meantime Reuben had caught me, dropped me on several hills and finally I told him to carry on. Earlier in the day I had several people on my wheel taking advantage of the draft but they dropped off either at a SAG stop or another eating-place. The scenery was fairly consistent, neat farms and homes but nothing out of the ordinary. We passed thru one town with many homes from the mid 1800s but other than that mostly fields of beans of one type or another. There are no pictures today. Interest is growing in the time trial and I will make a pelaton announcement tonight to get people to sign on. Tomorrow we cross into Canada via ferry and need to get an early start.