July 9, 2010
Days 37 and 38: There's a whole lotta sweat'in going on!
I feel like a prune. Not because I ate so many, or even any at all, but it is so darn HUMID here! That, plus temps in the hign 90's mean I just sweat all day in my riding clothes... It's a miracle I'm not all wrinkly from being constantly wet all the time. ...and everyone says this is only the start of the humidity. :-P
Still, I'm having fun. The last two days have been high mileage (98 and 91 to be exact), high heat, high humidity, but we are almost to Missouri!
I'm still enjoying the scenery but it seems to change every day. In western Kansas it was wheat, and then corn, and now we ride through miles of corn but also soybeans and sorghum. I don't really know what sorghum is, except I guess they make molasses out of it and feed it to animals. But Howard is a farmer in Virginia so every time I see this plant or that plant, or this or that crop, I ask and he knows what it is.
I really like the little towns, and when I say little 'town' I often mean, 'place with a store or diner.' Like yesterday, in a little one horse 'town' that looked like it was surrounded by a dozen or so houses It was a little diner/store that was like it has not changed in 30 years-- and the woman was so friendly and took great pride in it. She was waitress, cook and friendly greater. To us it was a little oasis because we came in from temps in the high 90's in God only knows how much humidly, and there was a cool place to sit, have a drink and a bite to eat. I had a grilled cheese sandwich for $1.90. One dollar 90 cents, can you believe it? And also a lemonade and fudge bar, all for $3.65 cents.
And she had a ledger for all the touring cyclists to sign as they came through as far back as 1994, though I'm thinking she had one before that as well. It was fun reading all the names and where the people were from.
Other than that, we saved more turtles from certain death on the road. Doug rescued a REALLY pissed off snapping turtle, VERY carefully! But, he eventually got the turtle off to the side of the road.
Last night we stayed at a nice state park near Toronto and tonight we are in a nice city park in Girard, near the state line. We had planned on swimming at the pool near the park but after dinner at Pizza Hut a thunder storm cropped up and they closed the pool. It was REALLY loud though and kind of cool (as in fun cool, not temperature cool).
I guess that's it for now. I will try to load pictures tomorrow. The wifi connection I'm on is pretty weak, I'm about ready for bed, and I don't time for a long process that always occurs when the wifi signal is weak. But, I should have a chance tomorrow morning though because we have to take care of business at a bike shop in the next town. So, until then...
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Today's ride: 189 miles (304 km)
Total: 2,762 miles (4,445 km)
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