........and Sunday brought another beautiful day, except the wind had died down and it was clear that we would not face a headwind.  Everything looked great until we put air in the bike tires, started Gin's car to put it back in its parking space and .........dead battery!  We got it jump started, filled it with gas, and Gin left earlier than planned intent on not stopping the car until she got back to DC to change the battery.  We headed down the road, feeling pretty good since the ride the day before had been so easy.

 

We did have one flat (my bike) replaced in seconds by Eric the Bike Mechanic.  We held a very strong pace going back, and around half way I noted that we were at a 15.9 average and wouldn't it be nice if could average over 16.  Eric immediately pooh-poohed the idea, but with 15 miles to go we were at 16.1 and it looked promising.  With about 4 miles to go Eric took off,  Ken and I attempted unsuccessfully to follow, and we blasted into the parking lot at Rt. 50/404 with an average speed of 16.4--a surprisingly good ride.  While tired, it was nothing like last year and the weather conditions could not have been more perfect. Of course the company was great and it would have been a shame to miss riding conditions that were as near perfect as one could hope and companionship unmatched.

Oh yes, and while in Bethany I replaced my ailing odometer with a new digital one (Mavic) that you will all envy.