Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

Today I was totally singing Dory's song from Finding Nemo. Often out loud. This was our second day up and down a mountain pass at 4200 feet. You know it kinda sucks the joy out of coasting down when you know that your just have to regain all that altitude again the next day.
Also I am finding that there are familiar lies that we have been told as cyclists to try and motivate us
1-After you reach the Pass's peak, it's all down hill to camp. No...no it's not...those little hills count as uphill and FLAT is not downhill...especially with a head wind
2-Sunny with partly cloudy...NO...jet streams do not count as "clouds"
3- Tomorrow we've chosen a easier route- BAH, HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHa
I didn't sleep well last night and knew we would be in for a rough ride with the pass and another gradual incline soon after.
I took breakfast on the road as we had to get escorted through construction before the climb to the pass. I wanted to make the first group(which I did) but then I was paired with Opa John to follow the truck. AH can I have another partner? Oh it's OK, Gayle, you just have to follow the truck. Yeah...I wasn't worried about Opa's speed in following but I wasn't going to burn out that early. I ended up slow pacing with our head Pastor Len, who was feature in the Banner with me back in January. I like him a lot, he reminds me of my friend Richard Vandervaart.
The DOT of Washing state were aware of our journey so they welcomed us with these signs

The weather was warm and sunny and the trees shaded our ride up to the pass. Saw the coolest treehouse ever!

The day got hotter and hotter and the SAG vehicles ran out of water. I had worn my cloves as all the shifting was start to rub too much but it was too hot with the gloves so I ended up just taping them.

Also, apparently, the heat completely melted my mental filters that stop me from swearing....Sorry Len :)
About .5miles from the pass peak I knew I was in trouble as the heat from the sun was overwhelming. I flagged a SAG and had to blast the air conditioning and down a litre of water. I opened my prayer square for the day from Dorothy Vanderling- She couldn't have given a better encouragement

10 mins later I was back on the road and head downhill. Downhill is not nearly as much fun with a HOT DRY 20km head wind-sucks the moisture right out of you. There was a mountain stream running beside the road but about 10ft down. I desperately need a dip but didn't think that I would be able to get back up the bank. I promised myself that if there was any lower access I would dive in( Len had gone on ahead when I was in the SAG so I was on my own.) Sure enough after a 23kms decent. A small rock beach opened and I sunk into the cool water

That decision probably save my ride as I had quite the challenges still ahead.
Also passed this, a real bear cave

Totally wanted to go in and explore but I figured that was just the heatstroke talking and restrained myself.
That's when the ride turned really bad. We had a nasty 2mile incline with no downhill lead in. Art/Pieter- Old River road has nothing on this one.Half way up, all the cool down I have achieved from the stream was gone, the sun beating down and no shade or relief. My buddy Joel caught up to me and said we would do this together. We walked up the rest of the incline and had a chance to talk a bit more. He is from BC and turns out that our current Pastor Willemina had been his youth leader. He said she had a profound effect on his life and was sorry he had missed her wedding. Reaching the top we thought we had made it through the worse but apparently we were wrong. The HOT, DRY head wind had picked up and just depleated all our energy. Also it was only down hill a little bit...mostly flat for the final 30kms. One of the longest 30kms that either of us had done. I was actually longing for the conditions of our Victoria day ride..COLD RAIN.
We were the last ones in.....93kms, 7hrs and 43mins. I was in tears and completely anti-social...And just went and decompressed under thecold shower. Praise God that I am surrounded by people who understand.
Today really tested me both mentally and physically. I must admit, I really appreciate all the work that Kubet and I did on my core muscles through pilates the last few months. I was really feeling the abs by the end.