Day 43: Old Man River

July 17, 2010

Well, I gotta admit, I was excited about getting to, and seeing, the Mississippi River yesterday, and we rode all day to do it. We left Centerville and hit the road about 8:30am, but conditions were already hot and humid.

The terrain was still hilly as we were on the tail end of the Ozarks but from there, to just before the river it was, well, it was STILL hilly. By late afternoon my patience for the hills and heat were wearing thin. At 6:00pm we were only about 20 miles away so we kept going. After the final climbs of the day the terrain, finally, flattened out into the delta and ahead of us was the river...

We rode hard from there to make it before sunset and just did. In fact, for pictures, the timing could not have been more perfect.

On the other hand, for riding it was hard. In fact, with this humidity my clothes are dripping wet all day and I started developing the beginnings of saddle sores. Because of that I needed a day off the bike but the guys couldn't wait (they are on a tight schedule) so they went on without me. I'm not sure if I'll catch them down the road or not, but either way I'm excited about what's left of the trip.

Today has been great. After a weeks worth of restaurant food (the guys eat almost all their meals in restaurants, which made me feel very depleted vitamin wise) I went to the store for lots of fruit and other good food. In fact, it was the stores anniversary so they had a lunch of 2 brats and a drink for $1.00, plus a free ice cream sandwich. I brought the brats back to my hotel and mixed them in my salad, it was delicious!

After that I sent back the last possible odds and ends I can send back for the final push to the end of the trip, ran a few errands and then headed to my room to kick back, watch today's stage of the Tour de France and update my journal.

Tomorrow I will move on. I'm excited about the coming days and will get an early start to beat the heat. I can't wait to get started!

Until then...

These pictures are from the past few days since I only posted text updates for that time.