Hi everyone! Welcome to day 64. Today we had a short mileage day of only 52 miles and only two relatively small climbs. Today was a very hot day again so the short mileage was definitely appreciated. We started out in the Portland area and got to bike for a few miles on a nice paved bike trail. But not before getting breakfast at a bagel stand of course.

Our only two climbs of the day were both within the first 20 miles so after we were done with that we knew the hard part was over. The van crew in the meantime were doing a donut collection run and taking plenty of pictures.

Our rest stop just happened to be at a playground, so we of course took a minute to let our inner children out for just a little bit.

The rest of the ride was somewhat unremarkable and just went through smaller towns and lots of farm fields. It was yet another unbearably hot day so we were trying our best to finish the ride as fast as possible. Except for a short(ish) taco truck lunch stop obviously.

In other news, Matthew found his 100000’s license plate…

And Rick was just being his amazing self again :)

After getting to our Salem stayover in the Kroc Center we took long immensely satisfying showers, did laundry, and in the evening had our very own I4Christmas in July! We were previously paired up randomly with someone else from the team to do a secret Santa gift exchange and today was the day we finally got to open our gifts. Some of the best presents included a working Go Pro camera found on the side of the road by Zona (I was the lucky receiver of this gift), a three-dollar frying pan from a thrift store, multiple items of clothings, a very heavy teddy bear, and much much more. It was AT LEAST as festive and special as the real Christmas.

-Valerie