Today was our first day back on the road after our great rest day in Albion and it would be our longest day of riding so far. We woke up early to try and beat the heat but both Sean and I slept in 20 minutes past the original wake up call and had to rush to get packed up. Because of this quick packing I somehow forgot to grab my retainer and didn't realize until 28 miles into our ride (don't worry mom I called the lady that hosted us and she's shipping it home).
The second group had many other problems along the ride. My back wheel almost fell off, Wyatt's back light fell off, Blake's shifting cable broke, and Max and Daniel G both had panniers fall off mid-ride.
We stopped for breakfast at a small diner in Battle Creek, which was extremely cheap but also tasted great. We spent the majority of the ride on bike paths with quick stops for Gatorade and water refills along the way. We finished our ride in South Haven and had lunch in the most overpriced restaurant I've ever visited, not to mention the food was bad. Wyatt also left his wallet at the restaurant and didn't notice until almost an hour later.
While the second group was finishing the ride Evan, Cole and Sean worked on finding a place to stay. After finding nowhere with a reasonable price or adequate conditions for our group, we decided that it would be best to bike an extra 2 miles to a hotel so we could avoid the coming rain storm.
After settling into our rooms all the boys went to the only open restaurant nearby which happens to be a Big Boy burger joint, that we quickly realized was meant for young kids and their families. The food was good and a mysterious man wearing a Jesus hat paid our bill without even knowing we were biking for a cancer foundation, so I guess it all worked it out. It was a very nice gesture from the kindness of his heart and we appreciate it a lot! We ended the day by getting some extremely large ice cream cones and relaxing in our rooms. Everyone is excited to sleep in tomorrow and the anticipation for ferry day is bigger than ever.