We're officially at mile 2994, but I'm already over.
We've been very lucky with the weather so far. It wasn't too hot when
we were in the desert, and we haven't gotten rained on yet. Twice it
rained on rest days, once in the evening after dinner, and today while
we were having lunch. We were out of the main path of the storm
anyway, so it didn't rain very hard or very long. There was a bit of
water on the road afterwards, but it soon dried up, and returned to
hot and humid.
We're heading back into the rolling hills. They're not as frequent or
regular as in Missouri, so let's just call them hills. The worst case
is when there's a long descent, but with a long flat at the bottom,
then several small climbs to sap any remaining momentum, then finally
the long climb back to the same elevation that you started at.
Around mile 90, there was a place where a bridge was out, and Neil
painted a large detour arrow in the road. But Bruce had told us that
Daco walked across, and anything Daco could do, we could do. We got
there, went around the "Road Closed" signs and the chains across the
road, and found a bridge composed entirely of steel I-beams, open to
the stream below. No problem.
I've been riding without sunscreen about every other day. I'm getting
a pretty good tan, and my arm hairs have gone blond. But my
fingertips look like they've been stained with iodine.
Dinner was in the "conference room" of the Econo Lodge, catered by the
Country Kitchen restaurant, which is just next door. Same with
breakfast tomorrow. I can't fathom why they don't just have us go to
the restaurant. Usually dinner is a half-mile walk, and frequently
breakfast is several miles away, along the route (except when it's
several miles off-route, which has happened a couple times).
Laundry. Some hotels have no guest laundry facilities. Most have
just one washer and dryer for the whole guest community. Since we're
travelling with only about four changes of clothes, we all have to do
laundry every four days. The only time there wasn't a line for the
laundry was on the first day, when everyone else was fresh, but I had
been in town for a few days. I spent most of the evening in the
laundry area, doing my (and Andy's) laundry, and reading more the
Harry Potter novel.
|
|