This was a wonderful day! Not too hot, not too windy, a lot of fun! We started out a bit earlier than usual, knowing that the parade was going to kick off at 11:30 in Lexington and that we had to ride 33 miles to get there... after packing up the tent and luggage we ate breakfast and were on the road by 7:15. Hundreds of bikers in orange shirts made a very impressive sight on the road!
At the first SAG stop we ran into the girl who found Toby's glove--she is pictured here with Toby. Her helmet cover is a skunk!
We armed ourselves with water guns this day, and used them liberally at the SAG stops. We even loaned them to other kids at SAG stops and a good time was had by all. It was a bittersweet day, knowing our week was at an end.
We arrived at Lexington at 11 AM after numerous stops, including all SAGs, a tractor photo opportunity and the Croswell swinging bridge... Since we were a bit early to line up for the parade we went to the beach to ceremoniously dip our wheels in Lake Huron. That was harder than it sounds--getting bikes across a large expanse of sand is not easy!
The parade lined up with a fire truck and ambulance in the lead. Bikes were grouped according to type: Recumbents first, followed by bikes pulling baby trailers, then tandems and triples, finally single bikes. We found out while in line that there were 855 riders this year! Most of them were lined up in their orange PALM shirts and it was quite a sight to see! We paraded around the town of Lexington and were cheered on by townspeople and relatives of the riders.
After the parade we found our luggage all together RIGHT AT OUR VEHICLES! What are the odds of that happening????? We ran into Ian and his mom and Jake at the end of the ride and took a final photo... Alex opted out of this day's ride to spend the day with his dad, whom we saw on the parade route!
We picked up our box lunches and ate them, changed out of our bike shorts and left for home by 12:30. Toby napped on the way home, making him fresh enough to help unload everything and dry out the tent when we got here. He is enthused about continuing to do longer rides, and we discussed doing one today, but decided not to do it based on the weather report. He may not be ready to bike in 20 MPH winds...
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