Friday, May 28, 2010
We are in Columbia, MO today. We diverted from the official route to go up to the KATY Trail, a dirt bike trail across MO, as Steve had not seen it before. We spent one night in a hostel in Tebbetts (remember that town, Dave & Eric?), a small (as in tiny) town with not even a conv. store open after 4 pm. We had to knock on the door of the local bar owner (who opens the bar “on occasion”) & ask him to open up and cook us some burgers, which he was kind enough to do. We’d have had to go hungry or go another 20 miles to St. Joseph if he hadn’t been there! Steve’s wife, Pam, and my girlfriend, Lee, drove down to Columbia to spend a couple of days with us. We had ridden 2 wks. without a break so we figured we deserved a couple of days off. We start riding again tomorrow (Sat.). The diversion to the Katy cost us a couple of days but was well worth it.
I forgot to mention the last time that when we got into Carbondale. IL my brakes, which had been getting “mushy” for several days, started to make the metal-on-metal sound car brakes make when they are really bad. I stopped at a bike shop, which we had planned to do anyway, to have them looked at and found that the brake pads, which had been new a month before, were completely worn through! All the braking (with the added weight of the bags) in the downhill portions of the Appalachians had worn them out. And remember, for every downhill there is an equal but opposite uphill. I had to climb to the top of each of those long, steep descents.
Another thing that happened to us in KY that I forgot to mention was “The Blackout.” We were told by some local cyclists that drivers will do this on purpose. Steve was ahead of me about a half-block when a large diesel truck, larger than a pick-up but smaller than a tow truck, went past him, slowed when it was right next to him, then gunned the accelerator, blowing a large black cloud of exhaust onto Steve. From a half-block away Steve almost disappeared into the cloud of exhaust! Nice. They’re not “bike friendly” there. MO isn’t that great, either, but not that bad so far.
Steve has had 2 flat tires in the last 2 days of riding but we got them changed. He’s becoming pretty good at getting the tire on an off. I help but it is pretty much a 1-man operation.
I let my beard grow since the start of the ride and sent photos by phone to selected family members asking if I should it or shave it–the voting is coming in now and “Shave It” (including one “Shave it or cut off your head.” is leading by a large margin.
I hear we were mentioned in church last week and much support was shown–thank you all so much! That really means a lot to us & there have been several times that I’m sure your prayers got us out of tough situations.
That’s it for now, we’re on the road again tomorrow. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!
