Saturday July 13:  Wooster, Ohio to Youngstown, Ohio
Distance:  89.3 miles
Total time:  7 hours 36 minutes
Riding time:  6 hours 21 minutes

So a lot of the riders are experiencing something similar, including me.  We've clearly gotten much stronger over the past six weeks, and there is no longer any question of being able to finish, or even much discussion about how tough a particular day will be.  But at the same time we're all worn down, even the most experienced cyclists.  Now that we're over 3100 miles down the road, nobody has ever experienced anything remotely similar.  Some of the guys have done seven day rides, and the Brits have done some extraordinary five day rides in which they climb in the Alps or Dolomites every day.  But nobody has gotten up every day for six weeks (soon to be seven) and ridden 60 to 120 miles every day.

I weighed myself earlier this week, and I've lost 10 pounds so far.  I'm thinking about a diet book:  "How to Eat 5,000 Calories a Day and Lose Weight".  Of course, you have to burn 6,000 calories a day to make it work.  According to my Garmin I burned 6,299 calories yesterday, but only 5,300 today.  So I took it easy at dinner time.

Today started out cool and foggy.  It was about 60 degrees in Wooster when we set out, and some guys wore their jackets for the first time since the Rockies.  It looked like this when we started out.

As we rode from the hotel at 7:00 a.m. it wasn't yet very light and it was very foggy, and of course I wear sunglasses and they completely fogged up.  I couldn't see a thing as we rolled out of Wooster.  I focused intently on the tail light of the bike ahead of me for the first half hour until the sun began to burn the fog away. 

Once the fog lifted, it was a day to keep your eyes on the sky.  Not good advice generally speaking for the cyclist, but today was different.  Early in the ride we saw the Goodyear Blimp float by - I guess not surprising as we weren't far from their headquarters in Akron.  Here Jamie takes a picture of me taking a picture of the blimp.

At the first SAG stop, we pulled in next to the Corsair Model Airplane Club as they flew their model planes around a park.  These guys were very serious, and were mostly the same demographic as the cyclists, as you can see from the photo below.

And finally, we came to a tee-junction late in the day, and there was a general aviation airport ahead of us.  A big sign said "Learn to Skydive", and sure enough we looked up to see some people learning to skydive.  If you know me well you know I was sorely tempted to go up in a small airplane with an unknown pilot strapped to a piece of silk and leap out of an open door into thin air.  Yes sir, if I weren't on this bike ride, I would have joined these folks in a heartbeat.  The power lines would have added just the right additional element of danger.

We're currently in Youngstown, Ohio which happens to be where my mother, and her father, were born.  This is Mom in about 1929 on the steps of their house.  It looks like her father has come home from work and they're having some time together.  I colorized the photo.

And here's my Mom and me on the steps of our house in McLean, Virginia in 1957.

Now we have two more long days - both 90+ miles - before our final rest day in Buffalo.  There's a lot of talk about how bittersweet the end will be.  On the one hand everyone is anxious to get home and get back to the family.  But on the other hand, everyone knows this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and when it's over, it's over.  Dave from Walnut Creek says that when he gets to New Hampshire he's going to turn around and ride back to California.