Where to begin.... After our great night at the firehouse lil foot and I had breakfast at a local coffee shop where we ran into the Brits! We hadn't seen them since Kentucky and were excited to catch up. Also along our morning leg of the day we bumped into Mike (from bardstown camping), Amy and Peter all also going west. We continued on and was lucky enough to get a 5 mile ride from Tom the firefighter... Thought this was amazing until I got a flat tire only a mile after our ride. Karma's a bitch for sure. That's the last ride we'll take for a while. Haha. So on we go, and now everyone has caught up to us. About 45 miles in the two of us stop for lunch, the Brits and Brian (connecticut mountain biker) continue to the next town and the remaining three stopped in Johnson Shutt Inns campground 15 miles back. We finish lunch and start the second half of our 85 mile day only to stop a mile later because something is wrong with my back tire - great. I guess the flat just wasn't enough. Afraid of damaging my bike more we hitch a ride in a pick up truck back to the previous campground to see if Peter can help, he used to be a bike repair mechanic so this was my best hope. He informs me that I need new tires desperately and did a little jimmy rigging to hopefully keep my tire from exploding before the next bike shop 200 miles away. Ugh, this was not our day.
With a full day wasted, we set off this morning from Shutt Inns at 6:45am with the hope of doing our first century! By 10:30 we were looking good, 30 minutes later the depressing heat kicked in. It took us an hour more to complete our next 27 miles to Eminence then it should have. By the time we dragged our asses over hole, after hill, after hill, we plopped down at the dairy barn for lunch. During which time we checked the weather... 95 degrees with a heat index of 109, great. Our attempt at a century was tragically cut in half. Now we have to make up a bit of time here and there but our hopes are still up.
Tomorrow we will be waking up at 4:30am and biking by 5:30 hoping to beat most of the heat, and end our day early. Tonight we're camping at the arrowhead Campgrounds, which a pretty crappy, but cheap and next to a river so we were at least able to take a quick dip before bed time!
The last full day of climbing in the Ozarks should be completed by tomorrow then a nice week and a half of the flats! I can't wait for some flatness in my life.
Good night for now people... I will update you on my bike situation as we go along.
Sasq
BTW, Missouri people are extremely friendly!
Oh and apparently lil foot and I have made a reputation for ourselves among fellow cyclists as the girls who are taking down all the dogs! I love that so many know of us before we actually meet them, haha. Loving the trip overall but the last two days have certainly been rough, I'm looking forward to a change of luck for sure.
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