ROUGH WEEK

Ah, our day off in St. Louis. What a distant fond memory that is.

I'm not exactly sure the order of the following three days, but here are the bare facts:

We went from St. Louis to Potosi; Potosi to Houston; Houston to Springfield.

These three rides together were over 300 miles. That's a century ride every day.. three days straight. PS I thought Missouri was gonna be flat....SIKE! Hills.... everywhere. Ozark mountains, too!

The first day leaving St. Louis started solid. I loved riding through the city. It reminded me of doing my training in LA. I'm not exactly sure at what point that ride stopped being fun. I think it actually held up a while. I do remember feeling a bit down and then seeing a great church sign that said, "You can't change the past. And don't ruin the future by worrying about the present." For some reason that put me at ease.

The more I think about it the more I realize that first day to Potosi wasn't actually THAT bad. We did ride on a road that said something along the lines of, "You are riding on Missouri's most dangerous road: Blood Alley." AWESOME!

Some of us pulled over in a ditch to eat a snack and while we were doing that, Andrea was stretching near the side of the road. She was doing a crazy yoga pose sticking her butt out toward the street and, no joke, a truck almost near ended two cars waiting to turn left because he was staring at her caboose. She might deny it, but I saw it with my own eyes.

Oh, yeah, and at one point I was riding in front of Andrea and I hear her scream, "DOG! GO!" I turn my head and see her booking it as fast as she can with a dog hot on her tail. Now, Andrea is a small girl. And when I see her pedalling like crazy with a dog chasing her my first instinct was to laugh. And I laughed hard. The dog stopped running after a while, but I seriously could not stop laughing. And, sure enough, a few houses down when we were still laughing, ANOTHER dog started chasing us. And I started laughing...again. Too funny.

We stayed at a boy scout camp that nights (sans boy scouts). We got two cabins and the director made us a TON of leftover food from camp. When we first arrived we went swimming in the lake. Some claimed there were nibbling fish, but I never felt them.

Later that night we did some roman candles we've had since 4th of July and had Harry Potter battles with them.

A funny story is that I discovered the cabins had AC (really hard camping, huh?) and turned ours on before sleep. I put it on as low as it could go and didn't think twice. I couldn't actually read the different temperatures, though.

Flash forward a couple hours. I wake up and it is a freaking MEAT LOCKER in our room. I am shivvering under my sleeping bag. I creep out of bed because in my head I think, "Crap. People are gonna be pissed at how cold it is." I turn the temp up and go back to my bunk. Suddenly, Nathan's phone goes off. I see him pick it up and I ask, "Is it 5?" He says, "yes." Crap. Plan did not work. People wake up and, sure enough, are freezing. I was nominated for the Jackass award for this stunt, but did not win.

The ride started out rainy, but it lightened up fast. As we were riding we came upon the cutest little Beagle ever. I called him Simba and he was our new favorite pet.

Soon after that we turned on to what I call the scariest road we've been on. It was up and down, side to side, and semis were barreling around every corner. Some people didn't feel safe enough to ride on it, so they rode in the van. One thing was keeping me going after our first lunch (we do two lunches on every 90+ mile ride): the fact that there was a Sonic 20 miles away that we'd be passing.

I've never had Sonic, but I've heard amazing things, so I decided it would be best to try it that day. We got into town right as a nasty storm was hitting and chilled there for a while. I had a delicious Strawberry slushee and a burger. Soooo good. They also kept coming outside and giving us free food. Then, when we were telling a gentleman about what we were doing he called his friend who worked at the newspaper and had her come to interview us and take a picture! I'm keeping my eye open for that article.

After it lightened up a bit we kept going. We hit second lunch, ate briefly, and it was already 5:00. We were told if we weren't in by 5 the van was going to pick people up. Not as punishment, but because our bodies really do need time to recover after riding SO many miles in so few days. Because I wasn't all the way in the back I was able to finish the day. However, I overshot the host site and ended up at Pizza Hut alone looking for directions. When I came out two women in an SUV pulled up and told me I was supposed to be staying at their church and they were there to pick up our dinner. I was able to put my bike in the back and they gave me a lift back.

We enjoyed a good dinner and the hosts were sooo friendly.

The next day was our last long day. We left from Houston at 7am and it was already so freaking humid. The humidty has been a problem in MO. It leaves you feeling like you're wearing a wet towel alll day long.

After first lunch a rider found a "good" detour. Yeah, this detour turned out to be an extra 12 miles. This fellow rider, Goose, won the Jackass award this week because of it.

Around mile 90 of 107 I started feeling weird. I ate a Powerbar and drank a ton of water, but I was shaky. Everyone was so gung ho about finishing, though, so I went along. By mile 100 I was feeling better, but it still made me nervous I was going to bonk.

That night a group of us went and saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. A pretty solid movie, but the book was deifinitely better.

The next morning we didn't have to be at the build site until 10am! We slept til 9 and it was probably the most amazing feeling in the world at the time. We walked over to a Habitat site they had donated to them. Me, Andrea, Jenna, Cali, and Codde went to a different site where we loaded a pile of wood into a dumpster. It took all morning and we didn't even finish, but when it was time for lunch the other crew ate everything, so Nancy (the leader) treated us via Habitat to Subway.

After that me, Emmy, and Andrea went to the local pool and they let us in for free once we explained what we were doing. After an hour we walked to the local Sonic and had slushees. I am officially addicted.

We had dinner donated that night and had some chicken and then had a long family meeting. Aaron and I worked on my bike after that and it's still a bit wobbly. I definitely need to get into a bike shop soon.

Today's ride was AMAZING! 80 miles! 80 miles! Not 100! It felt so great. The rolling hills weren't even that bad. We stopped at a local tractor show where Christina and Caroline participated in a barrel pushing contest. Only took them 41 seconds. You'll see footage of that eventually.

One woman even donated $100 to us there!

The rest of the ride just felt great. Everyone was in such good spirits. Seriously, best day of riding for everyone in a long time. Perfect weather. Not too hot and a breeze every now and then.

We got into Joplin, MO, at 4pm and Tatiana arranged for a local news station to come interview us. I even got interviewed, so I'll keep an eye open for that video, too.

We cleaned our tarps by putting a ton of water on them, putting soap on our bodies, and then sliding on them ala Slip N Slides. Good times. We just ate a delicious dinner that was homemade burritos. They donated all the ingredients and we just had to make them.

Also, we're starting this game called spoons. Basically, everyone has to be holding a spoon in their hand and you pick a name from a hat. They are your target. You must assassinate them by tapping them with your spoon when they are not holding the spoon until only one remains. I destined to win. Wish me luck!

Until next time, the wheels keep on spinning....