July 8 – 18

The last 10 days have been very exhausting! Not long after our last blog we ran out of flat land and the route started to get very hilly.  Are next big stop was Hutchinson, Kansas for Bobby’s birthday.  When we arrived in town we stopped at the local bike shop where we were told they had keys to a place to stay for bikers.  Sure enough they had keys and directions to a church right down the road.  The church turned their basement into a free biker hostel.  It was super cool to say the least.  They provided beds, showers, food, cable TV, and above all air conditioning.  We stayed there for a rest day to celebrate Bob’s birthday and because the church was such an awesome place to stay.  Since then we have been focused on riding and battling the extreme heat.  We put together a couple of our longest days, 100 mile day followed by a 90 mile day.  Lately we’ve become a little less picky with the places we sleep.  We slept on a baseball field one night, and outside a community building another night.  At night the temperatures dip way down into the low 90’s with high humidity, so sleeping in tents is tricky.  Bobby decided he was done sweating in his tent so he just slept on a picnic table the other night.  Since it’s been so hot lately, as in well over 100 degrees, we have changed our schedule to avoid riding during the hottest part of the day.  We get up around 3 or 4 am and ride until 11am or so.  Then we find somewhere to rest, preferably somewhere air conditioned like a library.  We rest until the temperature starts dropping around 4 or 5 pm. Then we ride another few hours until it gets dark out.  Its been working well but we want to be clear about one thing, it is still very, very hot.  We made it through Kansas and into Missouri where we entered the Ozark Mountains.  The Ozark’s do not have very high elevations but the grades are very steep, and the hills are one after the other, all day long.  The hills and the heat combined make for some long days and tired legs.  Are next destination was St. Louis for some family time and some rest with my sister Moira and her family.  The plan was for her to come pick us up on our route directly south of St. Louis, but a few days before the planned pick up day we lost our map.  We were drying it out at a laundry mat after we got rained on, and when we left we forgot to grab the map.  By the time we remembered it and went back to the laundry mat it was long gone.  With our map gone we decided to just make our way north towards St. Louis.  It was exciting to make our way without the map, and within a couple days we were at Jefferson City where we were picked up by Moira, her husband Dereck, and their daughter Niala.  We got to see downtown St. Louis and the Arch as we rested our legs for the home stretch of the trip.  This is a short blog I know, but Kansas was uneventful and Missouri is just hot and hilly.  St. Louis was awesome but now it is time to hit the road once again.  My sister will be dropping us off back on our route and we are planning on being in Virginia by August 6th!

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