Eureka! You've found… Becky!

To pick up where sasq left off… after cycling the last 23 miles into Eureka, we finally made it to the city park which is actually the city aquatic park aka pool. We rolled up to see Nina's tent set up, but no sign of her. Exhausted after a long, hot day, we collapsed onto the park benches, longingly eyed the refreshing, yet out of reach pool, & picked up our phones to do what we always do at the end of every day--catch up with the rest of the world! It was still hot & getting late and a little further investigation revealed that the showers were locked as well. After setting up camp & doing a bit of unpacking Nina came rolling up in truck with a new found friend! She was the bearer of good news, telling us that she had spoken with Becky, who promised that she would be back later and would open the showers up for us. Now, you're probably wondering who Becky is, huh? Brian, our first touring mate we met on the road back in CT, was the first person to tell us about her. All he said was to go to the pool & ask for Becky and that she would take care of us. Now, there are some amazing and some amazingly nice people that we've met on the road. And then there's Becky. She is the Kansas mother of all touring bicyclists (in rare cases she is also the daughter or sister)! And what a great mother indeed! This woman came barreling into our lives at just the moment we needed her and took great care of us up until the moment we went to sleep. And then she came back because she's that good! She opened up the pool for us after hours so that we could cool down after an insanely hot day of riding (first century under our belts!!), shower, and of course offer us some delicious frozen treats. She apologized up and down for not being able to have us over as her AC was out, yet still offered it to us anyways. After a long chat and learning a bit about each others journeys, we rinsed off, and then she said the magic word, "ice cream". Of course you can't say no, even at 1145 at night, so we opened the freezer to find it fully stocked with every Little Debbies treat imaginable. Then she gave us ice cream cones, stuffed an unopened box of zebra cakes into my hands and offered to make us anything else we wanted. She sure does know the way to a cyclists heart! But this wasn't all. After riding several days in 100+ heat, I've some how managed (haha) to get an ugly rash/skin irritation covering nearly the entire front of my legs. A little concerned about it, we asked Becky what she thought, who revealed that as a mother of 5 she's practically a doctor. With the care & concern of a mother she took a look and made her best diagnosis of sun poisoning. But, a little unsure, she decided it best to check with her doctor. Sometimes timing is everything, and on this particular night, there happened to be an all-night relay for life event taking place and a good chance that her family doctor might be there. So before saying goodnight, she said she would come back or meet us in the morning before we took off if he had any useful info. We of course were shooting for a bright and early start. Now, Becky's already come and opened the pool for us, hung out with us, fed us and she's only just met us. And then she came back. At midnight (which gave sasq quite the fright… and almost got me punched in the face haha). To tell me what her doctor said. Which, was that her diagnosis was probably correct and that udder cream might help. As in the cream put on cows udders and that it could be picked up at a feed store. She then offered to get me all sorted out the next day if we decided to stick around. But alas, the road was calling and we needed to keep going. So many, many thanks go out to our Kansas cycling mother! It's people like Becky that truly have an impact on you. Now despite the late night, we still managed to hit the road at 6 AM and beat some of the heat. About 10 or 15 miles into our ride, we see the Brit's round the corner of a turn and head on down the road toward us. Funny how we keep cat & mousing with all the other west bound cyclists. Chris & Gary are cruising now though as they are no longer self-supported, so it took them no time to catch up to us. So now we'd become quite the little cycling posse ourself--Nina, Chris, Gary, Sasq, & myself. We rode a pretty short and easy day into Newton, where we had sorted out another fire house stay. We had met a Newton fireman on vacation in MO who told us we were welcome to crash at the firehouse when we passed through. Gotta love those firemen ;) haha don't worry LB! Usually a very nice deal, we get mats to sleep on, AC, washer/dryer availability, and showers. And with the heat, a night in some AC is the only way to get some rest. The remainder of the day was pretty uneventful; mostly just trying to hide from the heat and figure out if we can knock off another century tomorrow. Sadly, it seems that we may be parting ways with some of our cycling buddies, as schedules and bodies dictate otherwise. Wishing all the best to everyone out on the road & hoping we meet up again!

Okay, another late night and another early AM.
g'night
little foot

PS. Thanks for all the support everyone! We wicked appreciate it.