Michigander Day 2, Cadillac to Benzonia, 60.68 miles

The ride guide had listed today as 58.1 miles, the longest day of the trip. I knew I was in trouble, as the first 3 days or so are usually still training for me. Plus, at the safety lecture the day before, Safety Man had warned us about one of today's hills. We had been told that it was so fast and dangerous on the way down that there would be cops and paramedics monitoring the situation at the bottom. So I was a little bit concerned as we set out bright and early.
Luckily, they turned out to be not too bad. While I did hit 33 mph with the brakes on, there weren't any cars on the road, and we made it down without any casualties. We hit a dirt road fairly early on, and despite last year's crash on a similar road last year, I was feeling pretty good. It was smooth and hard, so I was able to keep up pretty well.
We hit Mesick, our lunch stop at 10. While Mom was all for pushing on, Dad and I were ready for some food, so we persuaded her to stop at Jeri's diner. She was raving about her roast-beef sandwich for the next couple days. Unfortunately, about 2 minutes out of town, we hit a major uphill. Not good on a full stomach.
Shortly thereafter, we came upon more dirt roads. But these weren't dirt roads like the ones earlier in the day. These were deep sand. It was like trying to ride along a beach. Not good when you have skinny little hybrid tires and skinny little stick legs. The sand came up unexpectedly, around a curve, and immediately turned into a hill, so everyone got stuck. My parents managed to stay on their bikes, but I had to get off a walk a few yards before getting back on and slogging up the hill. And the sand hills continued for the next 10 miles. Given last years crash, I tend to be somewhat scared of sand. There were a ton of people walking, most of them on heavy duty mountain bikes, so I felt pretty good about being able to make it through.
Finally, we made it back onto pavement. Which really wasn't much better. It was a straight road, windy, and boring, with a ton of cars passing way too close. Mom zipped on ahead, while I struggled along, and Dad kept me company. At the 58.5 mile mark, we caught up with her. She had decided that we were past the designated mileage and ought to be done. I was perfectly fine with a break. I had bought a new bike seat the night before that was substantially firmer than my old one, and the transition period was killing me.
We made it into camp at 2:30. We found Cathy right away, but no one had seen John and Ben. While we started setting up the tents, she sent her daughter Sarah and the teenage boys constantly hanging around Sarah to go look for them. In a few minutes, we saw them carrying the fully set-up tent over their heads to our campsite.
As soon was everything is unpacked, I realized that I felt awful and needed to get out of the sun NOW. I thought a shower would help, and managed to make it to the locker room. After getting out of the shower, I go back over to my locker to change and realize that I can see multiple people passing by in the hallway. And they can see me. Someone had decided that the locker room was too steamy and had propped the door open. So everyone changing was unwittingly flashing the rest of the world.
I still wasn't feeling great so I sat down outside the locker room in the cool hallway. After a little while, I started to feel better and decided to try to make it back to my tent where I had left my water bottle. I made it 3 steps out the door before feeling sick again. So I had to walk back to the bathroom, which was on the other side of the building from the entrance, as fast as my poor tired legs and my poor queasy stomach would let me. I managed to avoid throwing up in the hallway, but it was still rather embarassing puking in a crowded bathroom.
After that, it was back to the hallway to take a nap on the tile floor. While cool, it was rather hard. It didn't help that I was using my toiletries bag as a pillow, which is none too soft.
Mom woke me up for dinner. The hamburgers looked completely unappetizing, so my meal consisted of baked beans and an oatmeal cookie. Truly, a dinner of champions.
Eating helped, though, so we all headed back out to the tents to sit around talking and journaling. No one really felt like taking the shuttle into town. This makes 2 days on the Michigander with no ice cream. Something is very wrong with this picture.