I found some!!

Ever since I got a taste for them from a random bag of trail mix, I have been searching every grocery store I've been in for dried apples. Today, at long last, I found some.

From a distance I glanced at the corner of the store and saw what appeared to be a very large Sun-Maid dried fruit section. It was by far the largest I had seen throughout the trip. As I got closer, it became clearer and clearer that indeed this may be my day as I could tell the variety was unmatched (usually stores carry just raisens and cranberries, and maybe apricots).

And then I spotted them. Dried apples!! Yes!!

Needless to say I had a huge smile on my face as the cashier checked the 4 bags I picked up. I almost took all 7 but I wasn't sure how they would stand up to the heat inside my bags.

Not only do they taste great, but they're almost all low GI carbs with a good amount of potassium and sodium (electrolytes that you lose from sweat).

Taste the sunshine indeed.

As for the biking, today was much harder than I had expected. It was almost all big downhill, creek, big uphill. The hills weren't huge but they were all steep. Based on the elevation profile, I thought it would be an easy 55 miles. Nope. It was probably the second hardest of the trip.

Towards the end of the day, I ran into that group again. They lost 2 people, but gained 3, but it looked like they were losing 2 more. I knew they were ahead of me too from a gas station lady where I breaked. They went ahead to Golden City, while I stayed back in Everton to stay in a bunk bed on a farm. I *might* meet them tomorrow as I plan on getting an early start. We'll see.

Maybe I'll buy a better tent and camp more during the 2nd half of my trip. Maybe it's worth doing.