Today was an excellent day in many respects. Tammy’s weather check indicated a chance of rain where we are meant to be on Saturday and Sunday, so we combined today’s and tomorrow’s mileage into our second consecutive 117 mile whopper. in addition to the distance, it was hot and humid, plus we had reached the stegosaurus back (lots of short, steep climbs and descents). There were numerous uphill pitches with a 10% grade, and at least one of 13%. Good thing we enjoy climbing! 🤮
We managed to complete this mileage via taking multiple cooling breaks where we would get out of the heat while downing cold drinks to lower our core temperature before setting off again. Sue and Brad were the heroes of the day as they stopped at an intersection at the top of a hill about 5 miles before our planned halfway/lunch meeting point and boy did we need that 5 mile reprieve.
This was their second great call of the day as 20 miles earlier they had texted from ahead of us to say they were having homemade pie and coffee at Cooky’s Cafe in Golden City, MO and that we should continue into town and join them rather than take the scheduled turn before. Cooky’s is an institution. It’s another town whose Main Street businesses seem to not be thriving, Cooky’s was packed with lunch goers. The pies were excellent, they pumped us with cold drinks, sent us off with ice for our water bottles and asked if we wanted to sign their bike book (duh!!!).
The first entry was by a 2020 cyclist early during COVID who was riding to raise money for humans and other animals affected by COVID. The second to most recent entry was by a westbound man and woman we met about a week ago in Western Kansas. They were strangers until they agreed to travel together having both advertised to find a rider on the Adventure Cycle Associations electronic bulletin board.
We saw many more communities struggling to keep going in the face of brain drain.
The dog whistles once again came in handy as a vicious looking dog went after Tammy, then me, as we were getting to the top of a relatively steep hill, not a good place to suddenly have to hit the pedal after-burners while also blowing a whistle very loudly. My heart rate spiked to 160 as the dog got within about three feet of me twice before the loud whistle turned him back each time.
Fantastic pictures and videos! ❤️