RAPSody, Day 2

You can see all 65 photos I took HERE

You can also read Lynne's account HERE She's done a much better job than I've done of this!

One of the first events of RAPSody day 2 to be of note happened just shortly after 2:30 AM when the sprinklers came on in the green grass that had become our tent city.
The sprinklers weren't the tick tick tick impulse type, but the kind that have a continuous stream that just moves slowly in an arc. Unfortunately one of the sprinkler heads was about 2 feet from my tent, meaning that it had an upward shot. The tent I was using was not designed for water coming in at 60psi in a stream from ground level. What that meant was that I awoke to a steady stream of water pouring through a screened window into the tent. I can attest that the floor is waterproof because before I could get a waterproof duffle bag on top of that offending sprinkler head I had over a half an inch of water on the floor. Bummer.

Breakfast was served at 6AM and the entire cafeteria was buzzing with the sprinkler fiasco story.

That aside it was a nice morning. It was about 10 degrees warmer than Saturday. A bit of a head wind for us as we pedaled southward towards Olympia. The route in the Olympia area transverses many miles of multi-use path. I am normally not a big fan of paths, always explaining that I have a road bike, not a path bike. These weren't all that bad for the most part. Non biking I-podded masses were few and far between, and with a few rare exceptions most was smooth pavement.



As we made it through Olympia we turned northward and our headwind became a tail wind as we pedaled towards Tacoma. The cloud cover was thicker than yesterday, hence the warmer temperatures. It got darker yet as I neared Yelm.


The weather forecast said there was an increasing chance of rain towards evening. I had memories of a past RAPSody where it just started pouring when I was a mile from the finish. I didn't want a repeat so from Yelm on I pushed it pretty hard with the benefit of a brisk tail wind.

There was some sort of event going on, maybe a boating regatta? At any rate, our bike route was changed at the last minute to avoid Steilacoom. From what I understand not only the big event and it's resultant traffic, but also road construction. What that amounted to is we avoided an area that in my opinion is one of the most scenic sections of the normal RAPSody route.

There was still plenty of nice scenery to see, but I'll be glad when we return to the normal route.


I finished up just after 1PM, had a frozen pineaapple fruit bar, listened to the band for a bit as other riders came in.



Then went out for a few more miles to reach 100 for the day.

............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......100...............0...............0..........100
Jan........618...............0................0..........618
Feb........692...............0................0..........692
March......940...............0................5..........940
April......934...............0................0..........934
May........905...............0................0..........905
June......1152...............0................0.........1152
July......1020...............0................0.........1020
Aug........932...............0................0..........932
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....7211...............0..............5.........7216