71.51 mi max 31.0 4:32.48 avg 15.7
Can you say State #10?!? I love the way it only takes us two or three days to get through a state around here. SWEET!!!
If I ever dreamed of buying a tube of Desitin, I certainly never in my life dreamed that I would actually use it. Long days on the bike plus nasty humidity are an easy recipe for some serious saddle sores. I'll do whatever works...and if it means I have to use Desitin, then so be it!
Deb is back towards Virginia now...I think it's probably best for her.
More cornfields & beans today. Within 6 miles, I'd had another flat - annoying!!! The mosquitoes were FAR worse than Alaska. In fact, that was everyone's biggest complaint about the camp this morning. A person leaving his or her tent in the middle of the night had to be expedient or risk anemia. Anyway, Anna was behind me by 5 minutes, so I pumped up my tire from the safety of her van. Just before checkpoint #2, Moon, Justin & Larry caught up to me so I pulled in behind. Some kids were out doing a water sale/car wash. We stopped, figuring that it would be a great way to support the local economy. After Larry finished with his water, he handed the bottle back to one of the kids, who looked at one of the girls and whined, "You refill it this time!"
We lost Larry in Butler, IL, and shortly afterwards, Moon & I caught up to Justin. I should mention that I talked to some creepy guy outside a convenience store, eating a hot dog at 9:30 in the morning. He had long, scraggly hair and a beard, and his sholder bones protuded sharply form his back. He was wearing a blue tank top, and was riding a mountain bike. His story was that he'd biked to Ohio from San Jose, CA (he has family here, he said). He was 18 when he did it, and now he was 45. He was getting bored, he said, and it was time to move on...according to the story, he biked in 4 days & 3 nights, him and a few friends.
He also wanted to know what we'd get out of this trip. That's a really good question, for which I didn't really have an answer. There are people on the trip who do, I'm sure, and wouldn't have stood there. Why am I doing this trip? I love to travel, I love to bike, I love helping other people. Why not take a train, though? I'd still be traveling.
Enough philosophical mumbo-jumbo...back to the ride! Moon & Justin were great fun to ride with. We went to a bar at lunchtime. In our defense, there weren't any restaurants in town that were open, just another bar down the street. It didn't matter to us, anyway, where we went as long as it was out of the heat. They ordered nachos and I got a sundae. I'm liking this see-food diet!
Of the 38 riders, only 12 tents are set up at the Henry County fairgrounds. Correction, 38 riders plus 5 staff...and all the staff are camping. So, there are probably 30 of us riders here in the air-conditioned hotel. The staff at the hotel have been extremely accomodating. We all probably would have found an alternative for dinner, except that it was Dennis's birthday, and it just didn't seem right to be away for such an important occasion. The hotel had one car which it used as a shuttle, and the Indian man who was driving it made a LOT of trips between the hotel and the fairgrounds. To alleviate some of the driving, one of Roberta's friends had a 5-person van and, and she transported 8 people to dinner.
As an additional bonus, I found out by email that Andy is going to take Madison for the rest of the time that I'm away! Yeah!! I have the best friends in the whole wide world :-)
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