On to Albany

This day we did ride the actual tour! We were in and out of some light rain, and as you can see by Tango's sunglasses, we had periodic sun. Actually Tango is prepared for either or both.

Tango is our friends Kristi and Kristin's loyal friend.

Our route was on quiet roads with more country living. The horses, cows, goats, sheep and alpacas gave little notice as we cruised by during their lazy grazing, and the rolling hills gave just the right amount of leg and lung challenge to let us know we were pedaling bikes.

We were ready for tea and crumpets by the time we entered the town of Independence. As one might guess -- Independence is the place to be for the fourth of July.

And the 2EZ was open. It was quite something with antiques and, well, junk on the tables, lining the walls, and on any available flat surface. Our server never stopped talking to us the entire time, told us the remodeling they were in the midst of HAS to be done by Friday (by the looks of things this could never happen), and told us every detail of the remodel and history of this place and other places in town. We had difficulty getting him to stop talking and let us pay to get on our way...

Finally we got released and could ride on!

Kristi was the only one of our smaller group (the larger group started earlier than we did this morning, and had already left the winery) to take part in the wine tasting, but others did purchase a bottle or two for later.

 

The town of Jefferson held our (rather late) lunch spot.

And then we were all ready to finish the day and wheel into our luxurious Comfort Suites Inn and our group pizza dinner. The original group picnic cookout got changed with the cold evening weather and -- some rain falling again. That and a long mileage day made pizza delivered to the hotel breakfast room a lot more attractive!

Alrighty then, I am caught up.