Day 3

It started to rain heavily in the night, and our thoughts were...its going to suck riding in the rain.
At that point we had no idea what we were going to wake up to in the morning....
When our eyes were fully open in the morning, we realized that were were 2 little rectangular islands adjacent to one another surrounded by water - our tent had leaked. (No, we did not set it up improperly).
So we sat there, numb for a few minutes, assessing the damages, and then came up with a strategy of how to pack up, with the rain outside and the lake inside.
Before exiting the tent, Lee put in her contacts, forgetting that the solution she used was a special hydrogen peroxide compound that only works with a specific contact case (which she of course didn't bring)...hence she scalded her eye terribly...and its still recovering (today is day 5).
Our breakfast options were limited to original instant oatmeal...which Lee despised so much that she tossed in a handful of peanut M&M's to choke it back. The coffee and tea were luke warm and without milk.
All of this prompted Merryl to say..."At least its not Mothers Day!....oh Shit....its your birthday!"
To which Lee started singing 'happy birthday birthday to me' while the tears from her scalded eye continued to drip down her face.
We did meet a nice Mormon man who updated us on the weather forecast and provided us with hot chocolate and marshmallows before we headed out of camp at 10:30am.

By now, its day 3....things are hurting, we're behind schedule. But we're not panicking - we're feeling like the whole thing is doable. We made it to the top of Mt Walker (about a 10km climb for a 300 m verticle) and were actually getting a chance to view our surroundings and get into the 'touring' mindframe. But, Lee had been experiencing sore achilles which was totally unexpected. We expected chafing, twinging, sore knees, cramped muscles, tight shoulders...but NOTHING like this.
Unfortunately this is what prompted us to end our day 76km later at a wonderful place called the Little Creek Casino Resort.
We surveyed the damage (to the achilles)...and there was damage...but tried to put it behind us for the evening.  Merryl took Lee for a nice seafood meal, and we gambled the $5 they gave us at the slots. We did however, look incredibly ridiculous, even after showering and putting on our 'dressy' clothes. In fact, on the way back from dinner, the bellhop asked us if we were the 'bike girls'....so clearly staff had been talking.
All in all...Merryl likes to think it was the best birthday Lee's EVER had.