July 23rd… Ryan’s birthday! We had to get up for our free breakfast, so no lie-ins! We had a good breakfast in the room beside the lobby – it wasn’t a dining room as such, and the breakfast wasn’t Hilton style, but we had freshly made waffles with some mini omelets and sausagey things. It was the best breakfast we had had in a hotel so far. The rest of morning we just chilled and Ryan took some birthday phone calls, opened his cards (thank you everyone for the cards and dollars!) and then we went for a wander around town. It wasn’t the most picturesque town and we couldn’t really see any nice restaurants to go to for Ryan’s birthday. The best review online was for a restaurant a few miles out of town that we had passed on the way in. Maybe we could cycle there tonight. We were going to have a picnic lunch in the park, but the sky was very grey. We went to Wallmart and I picked up a few birthday treats for Ryan and as we headed back to the motel the heavens opened. No picnic for us. We spent the rest of the afternoon indoors, tried to use the pool, but it was swamped with screaming kids, and then went to a crappy pizza restaurant, Marios, for dinner as it got undeservedly good reviews online and it was far too wet to cycle anywhere. All in all, poor Ryan’s birthday was pretty uneventful and I felt a bit sorry for him! Oh well, at least we weren’t in a manky hotel or camping in the rain.

Ryan checking his Birthday e-mails after opening some cards

Our Room