| Distance | Average Speed | Max Speed | Time | Elevation gain |
| 45.6 miles | 12.7 mph | 41.0 mph | 3:34:06 | 3382 feet |
I woke up a lot during the night per usual, but Ellen slept like the dead all night. I finally woke her at 6am. We walked to breakfast. It wasn't cold, but it was nice and cool. I forgot to bring our mugs with me. The handles make it easier to carry the water back to the tables. We had eggs, sausage, oatmeal, and yogurt. Though, the oatmeal was either vanilla or maple. Neither of us cared for it all that much. We didn't linger too long over breakfast, but we did read our Cycle Oregonian, the special little paper that they print off for us every day. We got back to our tent and packed up. It took a little longer with two of everything even with Ellen helping. When we were ready to go, and I had handed off our bags to the football team to place on the truck named Red 1, I found my front tire flat. I got that changed up near the Bike Gallery tent, but then I found one of my front brake pads popped out of the grove it's supposed to be in. I don't know how that happened since it wasn't like that yesterday when we rode in from the long term parking. I left Ellen to work on her journal and then read on the curb while I waited in line at the Bike Gallery mechanic named "Clue". Luckily, Clue's line moved pretty quickly, and he was able to solve my problem a lot more quickly than I ever would have been able to do on my own. When I got back over to Ellen, I found her chatting away with people. She certainly wasn't frustrated with waiting or freaking out about it. She was just rolling with it which portended a good week.
We finally got on the route by 8am which is super late for me. There were a lot of tandems on the road. More than I ever remembered seeing. There are also a lot more women than I remember there being in the past. We had lots of climbing today with some smooth downhills that allowed us to really open it up. Though, we did see one accident on a particularly tight corner. (I saw her later in the day with scraped up knees around camp, but otherwise she seemed ok). We saw a tandem with a child seat and a trailer with 4 and 6 year olds. We were also passed by a man and his 12 year old son on a tandem on the big climb of the day. That climb went on for 6 miles and had 3 sections of just gravel where we slowly spun our way up so we wouldn't lose traction. Lunch was at the bottom of the other side which was a fast and winding descent. As usual, all the people who commented about Ellen not working hard on the climb (and there weren't many at this ride) had stopped to rest at the top to watch us crest and continue on without stopping. We just shifted up and whipped down the hill to lunch. Only 13 hot miles from there to Cottage Grove.
We opted to skip the optional 23 miles around the lake since it was so hot, so we arrived at the finish a little after 1pm. We knocked back our cold chocolate milks and found a place to setup camp on the baseball field right next to the baggage and shower trucks. That means it'll be loud in the morning, but there wasn't much more of an option. Ellen found our bags really quickly thanks to the purple bag. We then went to the shower trucks. This was the part I was most worried about because I couldn't really keep an eye on her once either of us were in the trucks, so I told her just to wait for me outside the truck if she finished first, and I would do the same if I did since my line was longer. I needn't have worried. The older ladies in line helped her through the whole process. She met a lady named Jeri (spelling?) who was very nice. Even though the men's line was longer, I was still finished first. We were able to find some water before finishing up the tent setup (Cots, sleeping bags, that sort of thing), and then we walked to the main finish line area and on into Cottage Grove.
They had closed down the main street through town. This is the town where the movie, Animal House, was filmed. For a $10 donation to Habitat for Humanity, I was able to get my picture taken in a toga and tie on the Death Mobile from the parade scene at the end of the movie. I couldn't get Ellen to pose with me, so she just watched that scene of the movie on the TV they had setup there next to their booth. We found 2 book stores and hung out in each to get out of the heat. We also found a little cafe to have a sandwich before dinner. Ellen read some books while I sat and worked on this journal.
We bought some postcards at the book store, but we failed in our attempt to get stamps for them since it was after postoffice hours. We walked all the way there in hopes that they maybe had a dispenser in the foyer, but no such luck. It was a wasted 7 block walk in the heat. Ellen was so tired, she didn't even want to play at the playground we passed on our way back to camp. By the time we got back to the main stage area it was dinner time. We had chicken piccata, potatoes, and asparagus. The band that was playing during dinner was an '80's cover band playing songs by Madness, Joan Jett, Tears for Fears, Queen, Cindy Lauper. They sounded good from where we were sitting. We worked on our journals in the shade after dinner.
I treated Ellen to some Ben and Jerry's ice cream (yes, we have a Ben & Jerry's ice cream stand following us around every year), and we called Jada and Phoebe. We went back to the tent to brush teeth before returning to the main stage for the evening announcements. We actually found 2 chairs to sit on. This was something that I don't think they used to do which was put some chairs at the main stage since people usually pilfered them from the dinner tent. Johnathan Nicholas got started late again, but he made up for it with a moving 9/11 memorial speech. Ten years ago, when the towers fell, there were 2200 cyclists and volunteers in the southeast corner of Oregon where there were few people, and fewer towns. News spread throughout the day, and people from New York, and those with family there were trying to make arrangements to get back to the East Coast. Since all air travel was grounded, they made the decision to continue their ride with their new friends from all over the country and all over the world brought together by the common love of 2-wheeled self locomotion. After that tribute, we learned about the bike school pilot program that was setup in Cottage Grove to teach the kids how to ride bikes safely to leave a bicycle legacy instead of just leaving a lot of economic impact on the communities we ride through. This is a program that they will be extending in the years to come. We left right after this so that I could get Ellen to bed by 8:30pm. Still not as early as I'd like, but closer. She passed out immediately again. I wasn't too long after.
Continue to day 2.