10/11 - Day 7

 Sunday, October 11 - Happy Birthday Dick Scheutzow!

Today was our firt real riding day. We ride from our day one hotel to our day two hotel.

Here's a morning shot from the hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel was a lot of the same, but bigger. One of the rooms they used for seating and foood as well was an auditorium, They had tray holding carts for older people. 

And for the kids..

And this.


The food wasn't particularly good. And for me, the choice was either meat or cheese.

It was windy on today's ride. Peter rode with us again and he is a strong rider. He rode in front because he had the route and took the headwind. Mike was able to stay on his wheel and benefitted. Walter and I could rarely keep up and if I dropped back to take a picture, catching up took too much work.

This is a nice shot of a pretty typical little rural village near where we had lunch.


Lunch was at a lovely little place run by a delightful woman with multiple commendations on the wall. It was new construction, light wood, very airy.

Romain has been calling ahead to ask if the chefs can prepare plant-based meals for me. Everyone's lunch came in a large bento box and this is what she made for me. It was actually about 90% similar to everyone else's, but I really appreciated the effort both by her and Romain.

Since I skipped the last segment, I arrived with Romain in the van and was able to check in and enjoy the onsen before they came back. It was an even better experience than the onsen at the previous hotel.

It is a much smaller facility and I saw a lot of the same faces performing multiple jobs.

Our room has a balcony overlooking the lake. There is a sliding door that separates the beds from this sitting room - very Japanese!


In the closet were some robes we could wear around the hotel.


This was the view from the balcony.


After dinner we sat in the lounge to watch Mike finish his beer. Romain gave each of us a little present. 


Mike wondered if I looked like my mother. I should be so lucky!

Here are my stats for the day. They are about 15 miles shorter than Walter's.

https://www.strava.com/activities/20537077156
37.31 miles, 1060' climbing

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