The cold nights continue. We had a small snack for breakfast and had plans to go out to Pizza Hut for lunch today when we got to the town of Harrison. With that to motivate us, we got everything packed and headed out of Alpena. From where we camped, we had about 11 miles to go to get to Harrison. On the way out of town, we had a nice hill to get us warmed up. The wind was against us today, so it we didn't get there as fast as we would have liked; I guess one day of a tailwind yesterday was all we were going to get. A little bit before we got to town we stopped at a visitor center/ Arkansas Welcome center. The people working inside were pretty interested in our trip and asked us a few questions. There was free coffee and candy to snack on; we even got a free little Arkansas pin that we put on Joey's handlebar bag. Excited about our lunch, we headed off again. We got to town at 10:30, just a half hour before the buffet usually starts, so we made a stop at McDonald's to use the internet. Then, off to get our bellies full of salad and pizza! It was wonderful, especially since they made a pizza on request- a pepperoni and mushroom pan pizza. I think between the two of us we ate almost that entire pizza. By the time we left it had warmed up a little, almost to the point that we thought we might not need to wear our face masks! After a little bit of flat-ish road for a while, we had a bit of climbing as we went back into the Ozark mountains. Those miles went by quite a lot slower, but the wind didn't seem to be as much of a problem anymore. We passed through a couple of very tiny "mountain towns" along the way. After quite a lot of climbing, we got to enjoy a nice long descent into the little town of St. Joe- "the heart of the Ozarks." It had a little gas station we could take a quick break at. When I pulled in, a couple minutes after Joey, I heard a little voice say "there's the person in second place. Joey had been talking to a little boy that was at the gas station on his bicycle. The boy said that not too many cyclists come through here and so he was surprised to see us. It was pretty cute because while Joe was waiting for me and also talking on the phone, the little boy would follow him around. Gotta love little kids! After leaving St. Joe we had another long uphill, then a downhill to where we crossed the Buffalo National River, and then another long uphill as we climbed back out of the river valley. Once we got to the top of that next climb, we could see the beautiful sunset. We were just under 10 miles away from the next town where we planned to stay, so we weren't too worried that we wouldn't make it before it was completely dark. Another long downhill and then a long stretch of flat road. We had one last hill to climb up and over before getting to Marshall. At that point it was dark enough that I would need my tail light on so people would see us. Luckily it wasn't that big of a deal that it had gotten that close to dark because we had a nice big shoulder to ride on and there really wasn't that much traffic. Upon getting to town, we stopped at the McDonald's- which we were very surprised to see, to fill up on water and check to see if any of the hosts we had emailed for Little Rock had responded. On the way into town, we passed a church that was off the road quite a bit and also had a nice overhang in case it were to rain. We decided to ride the short distance back to that church and stay there for the night. We were very lucky because our phones were dead and they happened to have an outdoor outlet that where we could charge them for a little bit, just in case we might need them later on. Going out for the buffet for lunch made it really relaxing this evening. We were still nice and full from the buffet, so we didn't need to worry about cooking or cleaning for dinner- that's one of the best parts of buffets is that they easily end up serving as two meals, if not three (as we didn't really have any breakfast this morning). Tonight was a great night- we were actually feeling comfortable outside of our tent. It was still cold, but we weren't shivering and could actually tolerate it without any problem. Hopefully this is a good sign for the nights to come! Our miles totaled 54.47 today. We did alright, but were again slowed down by the wind and then the hills following that.
0 Comments
It was a frosty morning again this morning. Once we were up and going we packed up quickly and headed over to the gas station to see if they sold milk for our cereal. We were keeping our fingers crossed that they would have some tables inside that we could eat at, and were very happy to find out that they did. As we sat there eating our cereal, we had a chance to talk to a couple of the local guys that were there for breakfast. They were impressed with our trip and asked us quite a lot of questions. It's always funny when people joke around with each other about their friend joining us and them riding a bicycle. So many people think that they can't ride a bicycle, but the sad thing is that if they tried and rode it just short distances, it would be good for them. I really wish this country wasn't so car dependent, especially during warm weather. It was nice being able to eat inside and give the sun a chance to come out more. The wind was actually with us today! After breakfast we flew to the state border very quickly. Since the sun was at the right angle this time, we re-took our Missouri state picture since the other ones didn't come out very good before we left. We were in Arkansas!! This trip is still going SO fast. The road we had been riding on in Missouri and still in Arkansas, was considered the Trail of Tears historic trail. After only a few miles in Arkansas, the road turned into another roller coaster road. We passed a sign that said "steep crooked road, next 6 1/2 miles." That is definitely how it was. We meanderd up, down and around through part of the Ozark mountains. Lots of climbing really slowed us down today, but not nearly as much as it would have if the wind would have been against us. We finally got a good tail wind and we still couldn't use it fully to keep the pace up. We had our lunch break in the town of Elk Springs. This town was pretty much all along the narrow mountain road and was very stretched out. There were a crazy amount of hotels in town, and hardly any houses that we could see. It was pretty much just a tourist town. We stopped at the grocery store thinking that we might get something for lunch. Somehow we ended up just getting a half gallon of peppermint ice cream because it was on sale for only 2 bucks since the holidays were over. So, that was lunch. Despite it being a little cold out (but still not as cold as yesterday), it was a very yummy treat. We ate it at the table and chairs inside the warm laundry mat next door to the store. Before heading out of town, we made a quick stop to at McDonalds. Somehow a water bottle leaked in the tent last night and one of my gloves got soaked. Luckily I was able to dry it out with the hand dryer in the bathroom there. Just around a big curve we saw something that would have been much better for lunch- Pizza Hut! And, even though it was Sunday, this Pizza Hut happened to have buffet every day of the week, which is definitely not the norm. We were a little dissapointed, but at the same time, knew that there would most likely be other Pizza Huts in the next big towns since Elk Springs had one and it wasn't even that big of a town. After leaving Elk Springs, we had a pretty long downhill to the next town of Berryville, that wasn't too far away. We took a quick break there and got a couple things at Walmart before heading out of town. On the way out of town we saw something that we had heard about, but had never seen- a KFC buffet restaurant. All the climbing that we did today made us pretty tired. We passed through another town and crossed over a few more hills before we reached the town of Alpena. Originally we wanted to make it about 11 more miles further down the road, but it was already getting close to dark when we arrived in Alpena. We saw a church that had a few cars at it, so we headed in and asked if we might be able to set up our tent for the night. The pastor didn't have any problem with it and off we were to set up our tent. The people in the church were there for band practice- they had a full drum set, keyboard, singer and a guitarist. The pastor was the drummer and they all looked like they were having a great time making beautiful music. It would be a lot of fun to go to a church that had a full band like that. We made some mac and cheese for dinner and snacked on some really good cheese bread from Walmart before getting in or sleeping bags for the night. We ended up cooking in our tent to warm up a bit and it did the trick. Our tent was warm enough that we didn't completely freeze when we had to change into our regular clothes for the night. We are slowly moving south and can't wait to get where it's warm. We shouldn't have too many more nights that are in the 20s. Our miles totaled 50.97 today.
Everyone was up really early this morning to head off to Kansas City for a wrestling tournament. Amy's Mom, Diana, who was going to be heading home today after visiting for about 3 weeks, would get to see the boys wrestle one more time before jumping on her train to head back to California. As for Joey and I, somehow we slept through them getting ready this morning because they were already gone by the time we woke up this morning. We got everything all packed up and I took a quick shower before heading out today. It was a very cloudy day and wasn't all that warm. Another day in our pants, heavy gloves and face masks. The crazy Missouri hills continued. Lots of endless steep hills. The wind again, was just killing us. I don't think we're ever going to get a tail wind. We had a couple dogs chase us today as has become the norm out here in farm country. We went through a little town called Fairview where we met a guy, David, who does some touring and loves to cycle. He pulled us over in his truck and talked to us for quite a while out there in the cold weather. From there we continued on and got to the town of Wheaton after battling the wind for quite a while longer. Just before getting to town, a young man stopped to check if a bag that we saw laying on the side of the road a ways back happened to be ours. We were so surprised by the thoughtfulness of this young man because most kids his age are beeping their horns or yelling out the window at us, not checking to see if we dropped something. Like when we were in Iowa, Missouri seemed to be a very nice place to be. Everyone we've met here has been so nice. On the way into town, we also saw something kind of neat- Oreo cows! There were a little group of cows that looked just like Oreos- black on the ends with a distinct white strip in the middle. They were cute. For lunch, we toughed it out and cooked one of our frozen pasta and veggies meals outside. We were able to get out of the wind a little under the pavilion at the town park, so it didn't seem so cold. Originally we hoped to make it all the way to the Arkansas border today, but with the wind, we knew that might be a little bit of a stretch. The hills got a little less steep as we continued on today and when we turned onto a busier road that had a nice shoulder, the grade of the road was much nicer. We slowly made it down the road and decided to call it quits in the town of Seligman. We made it very close to the border, but weren't sure if the first little town in Arkansas would actually have anything in it, so we figured it would be better to just stop where we were. There was a gas station and a Dollar General where we could get some food if we needed to. While Joey rode around the little town real quick looking for a place to set up our tent, I got some pasta and sauce for dinner and some cereal for breakfast tomorrow morning at Dollar General. There was a very nice little church that was off the road quite a bit and had plenty of room around it so that we wouldn't be bothering anyone. It wasn't supposed to rain at all, but it was supposed to be another cold night. We got set up and made our dinner as fast as we could. While we enjoyed some angel hair pasta and alfrado sauce, Joey talked with John (a host in West Virginia that we stayed with on our last tour) about his Wheel Chair mission since we have been thinking about doing the last leg of the trip for a charity. A big number of people have asked us if we were doing this trip for a charity, but we've always had to tell them no. We've always felt that we didn't need a reason to do the trip or to ride. We were simply doing it for the adventure and the fun of it. But, we figured that we might as well put the last leg of the trip to good use. So, we've decided to make the last leg go towards John's charity-The Free Wheelchair Mission. We still have a few things to do to get it all set up, but by the time we leave New Orleans, we should be on our way to doing our "mobility for mobility" ride. After dinner, we washed the dishes quickly and then went right into our sleeping bags to avoid the cold. Tomorrow will be a new state already. The further we get east, the faster we start going through states simply because they are so much smaller than those in the west. We rode 55.26 miles today and are only about 4 miles from the Arkansas border.
So, we decided to stay another day. The idea of going to share a little about our trip with the kids sounded like it would be fun, so that's what we will do today- go to school! We were up nice and early and had a quick bowl of cereal before jumping in Les's new truck to head to school. The middle school that he teaches at is in the little town of Granby, which was around 10 miles away. Joe and I brought the memory cards with our photos on them so we could show the kids some pictures. If we had known about this earlier, we could have put a nice little presentation together that would have been nice, but we will manage just fine. For the rest of the day, we went through some of our photos with the kids, told them stories of things that we saw/that happened, explained how we camp and cook on our stove, etc. It was pretty fun. As the kids were listening, some of them looked amazed. During the "break" period, or "hour" as they call it here in MO, I was able to go through all our memory cards and just pull a few pictures out and copy them into another folder so we didn't have to look through all of the photos on the cards, which made it a LOT easier and more efficient. For those classes, we were able to cover a lot more things. It really goes to show just how preparation is so vital in the classroom. That little bit of time to get things organized made all the difference! The best classes were the 7th graders. They were very interested in what we were talking about and asked a lot of great questions. The 8th graders were a little "too cool for school," so they mainly kept to themselves. For lunch we each got a HUGE salad, some tater tots for a side and of course no school lunch is complete without chocolate milk! It was a very fun day going to school, I'm glad that we ended up staying. On the way back to Neosho from school, we stopped at "The Worlds Largest Flowerbox," which was right at the city limits of Neosho. We also made a quick stop at Amy's workplace to say hi. When we got back to the house, the boys were already there with their grandma. A little while after we got back, the boys had to go to wrestling practice and do their weigh in for the week. I can't imagine having to keep the kids on such a strict diet so they were at the correct weight come the weigh in on Friday. It has to be such a challenge. Les ordered a couple pizzas for dinner when everyone got back home. Right after we ate, the 6 of us headed off to Joplin to go to one of their favorite places, Andy's. They said that we just had to have some Andy's frozen custard before we left because it was simply the best. The ride there was a lot of fun because the boys were singing along to all the songs that were playing, and at one point were both "bobbin' their heads to the music." It was pretty funny and just too cute. Well, Les and Amy were right- Andy's Frozen custard was absolutely incredible. I don't think I've ever had anything like it, even though I am an ice cream-o'holic. I went with Les's suggestion of having the Snowmonster, which is vanilla custard blended with strawberries and melted chocolate chips and I'm SO glad that I did. It's unexplainable just how good it was. If I ever come back through this area, that will definitely be a stop. After our Andy's stop, we drove over to the Academy sports and outdoors store to get a couple things, including a new pillow for me since mine no longer stays inflated and is completley flat by morning. As we were driving through Joplin, Les pointed out what was destroyed by a tornado last year, and what had already been rebuild. He said that this entire area was pretty much flattened. He also told us that the tornado happened on graduation day and that one of the graduates was sucked out of the skylight of their family's truck on the way to/from the ceremony. I just can't imagine how horrible that must have been. Les also explained that although it was an absolutely horrible thing, the only good to come out of it was that the cameras in the school halls and around the building were running. He said that after the storm, they were reviewed and that they learned that the amount of debris that was flying around the hallways, and the force that it was going would have been deadly. They used to have a plan to put all the students in the hall away from the windows if there was a hurricane, but now they know that is definitely not a safe place. When we got to Academy, Joe and Les did a good job of looking for what we needed to get there. Amy, the boys, and I on the other hand were completely distracted. One of the customers was walking around the store with a little tiny huskie puppy that they had just gotten that day. It was too cold to leave her in the car, so they brought her in. All 4 of us got to hold the little puppy and give it lots of love. It was SO adorable and even still had that puppy smell. Joey found a pillow that would work. It wasn't as nice as the one that I had from REI, but it was a heck of a lot cheaper, and as long as it held air, it was much better than having no pillow. On the way back to Neosho, Les swung by a popular motorcycle/bicycle stop called the Undercliff Grill and Bar. It was literally a restaurant that was built right into the side of a cliff. He wanted to show us this place just because it was a neat, and it really was. They were still open, so we just peaked our heads inside to get a glimpse of what it looked like inside. The back wall of the restaurant was actually the cliff itself. It was so nice that Les and Amy were so interested in showing us things in their area. When we got back to the house, we played with their cute little dog, Holly and Joey played a little bit of video games with the boys. Later, we watched some videos that Les had made of Marcus and Nicholas wrestling, running, and playing soccer. Man these boys are some talented athletes, that's for sure! It was amazing to see just how good they were for their age. When Marcus was in 3rd grade, he did a mile running race with the 4th graders and completely crushed them, and that's just the start of it. Although we didn't ride today, it was worth taking the unexpected day off. That is the one thing that I love about this tour- we have a rough time schedule, but are not under any extreme pressure to get somewhere by any specific date, so if something comes up that we want to do, we can usually do it. I'm glad that we decided to stay for an extra day here. Somehow we ended up going to bed pretty late today, but we had a lot of fun either way.
It was another day of waking up to a frosty tent and frost covered bikes, but getting to run inside the church right away to change where it was warm was a great way to start the day. Pastor Blake was there working in his office by around quarter to 8 and was ready to go out for breakfast whenever we were. We of course had to get our tent down and everything re-loaded on our bikes before we could head to breakfast. Somehow the church had an open wi-fi network in the fellowship hall, so I was even able to check the weather real quick this morning. It is supposed to be a sunny day, even though it's probably only going to get in the 40s today and would be cold until later this afternoon. Either way, it was an exciting day. Once we were all packed, we started heading over to the little cafe down the road. As it was just over a mile away, Blake easily passed us in his truck on the way there. Even though it was only about a mile ride, it was long enough that our toes were numb and we were really cold by the time we got to the restaurant. It was so nice that we get to see him again today and enjoy breakfast with him! I ordered my favorite- french toast, and both Joey and Blake ordered a breakfast medley of eggs, sausage/bacon and pancakes (aka hot cakes as they are called in Oklahoma). We had a great time talking with Blake and hearing about how his college was, how he grew up on a big ranch and loved herding and taking care of the cattle, and how he came to be the pastor at the Southern Baptist Church in Afton, while sharing our stories too. We also found out that he and Nikki got married just a couple weeks after us! It was nice to see that he is serving as a pastor at such a young age (he and Nikki are very close to our age.) Going to breakfast with Pastor Blake was such a great way to start the day. Spending a little time inside also gave it time for the sun to come out in full force, melt the frost and get a couple degrees warmer out. When we left Afton we only had about 12 miles to go to get to the town of Miami and then about ten to go from there to get to the Kansas border! We didn't have any troubles getting to Miami. The sun was shining and warming our backs as we rode down old Route 66. The best part was that the wind was at our sides, which would mean that we would have a tailwind when we start to head East in Kansas. The funny thing about today is that we have a Warm Showers host all set up in Neosho, MO, which is only about 20 miles away from where we started this morning, had we gone straight east. But not us, we are taking the long route so we can ride in Kansas for a little bit just so we can say we were there once. The closer that we got to the KS border, the flater the land seemed to get, which was a welcome break after some of the hills we had a few days ago. Shortly after getting into Miami, somehow, both of us missed the sign that said the road we were following turned. We ended up going about 5 miles out of the main area of town, crossing the interstate and seeing a sign that indicated a town in MO was only 15 miles away. Right when we saw that, we knew something wasn't right, we were heading towards Kansas, not Missouri! Luckily for us, we noticed just in time to be able to take a nice country road that had very few cars on it and get back on track with our road. It ended up only being a couple of extra miles and wasn't really out of the way; we just made a right angle instead of a diagonal. We got back onto our road in the town of Quapaw, which was on one of the Indian Reservations. About 4 miles after that town was the border we had been long awaiting. We were FINALLY in Kansas after all those cold nights. We were SO excited that we were able to meet our goal and make it there; it was definitely worth freezing our tooshies off for the nights that we did so that we could get there. There was a great sign to welcome us into Kansas and the first town, Baxter Springs, was just a mile or two from the border. As we were riding into town, we started looking for a warm place that we might be able to eat inside. We saw a laundry mat and knew that has worked before (to cook outside and eat inside where it is warm), but there weren't any tables and very few chairs inside unlike most of the other ones we've seen, so we continued on. A very short while later, we saw something great- PIZZA HUT!! Although we weren't planning on going out for lunch, it was perfect timing for lunch buffet, and we would get to eat indoors and not have to worry about cooking or cleaning. We also thought it would be a perfect time to put our Pizza Hut gift card, that we got for Christmas from Grammy, to use. So, that's what we did; we went to Pizza Hut to celebrate getting to Kansas. Although there was only about 30-40 minutes left of the buffet, the employees said they would not be putting it away right away, so we would have plenty of time. Salad, breadsticks, pasta, pizza- what's not to love about Pizza Hut buffet!?!? Right before we sat down, our waitress said that the manager was wondering what we would like to see out on the buffet. Of course we both answered pepperoni and mushroom pan pizza. As I was filling up my salad and breadstick plate, our waitress said that they were going to bring the pizza we requested right to our table! What special service- now we didn't have to worry about rushing or not getting enough pizza from the buffet; AND it was our favorite kind of pizza. We had such a great lunch. After we were stuffed to the brim, we continued on and headed out of Baxter Springs. By that time, we had less than 10 miles to go before we would already be out of Kansas. We didn't need to ride for tons of miles in the state, that was enough. I don't think we're missing out on too much more than lots of flat prairie land and corn fields. Our short ride in KS was sped up even more by the great tailwind we had while we were heading due east along with the pretty flat roads. After our short time in Kansas, we were at the Missouri sign before we knew it. Another state in the same day. It is always so exciting when that happens. At that point we were very close to one of the "3 corners" in the us (KS, MO, OK), however there was no sign indicating where to get to the marker, so we didn't get to go there. For a couple miles, we had to ride on the I-44 before getting onto a regular road again. With the tail wind and the wide shoulder, it was no big deal and we were off riding on back country roads again. It didn't take long before we were chased by a dog. This particular dog ran after us for such a long distance. Luckily the road wasn't busy, otherwise I would have been really worried for the dog. When we stopped at a stop sign, all the dog wanted was attention. He jumped and put his front paws right on us/our bikes and was just so cute. As we were leaving, the dog looked so sad, almost like his new best friend was leaving. Within 10 miles of getting into the state, the terrain started to change. Almost instantly it went from being pretty flat to being hilly, the steep sharp type of "rolling" hills. We would get to the top of one, and be able to see 2 or 3 hills just like it ahead of us. These type of hills sure make us tired. As we slowly made it up the hills, we knew that Missouri, and most likely Arkansas too, would be slow going if it was like this the whole time. Not only were the roads filled with these steep hills, but the roads were also very narrow. By the time we made it to the intersection where we turned to go towards Neosho, our legs were feeling it from all the sharp climbing all of a sudden. That next section of road was kind of fun. It reminded me so much of a roller coaster because there would be the sharp rolling hills and curves left and right (sometimes right in the middle of a hill). Despite being a little bit of a tiring ride, it was a very fun one! When we made it to Neosho, we started to look for a McDonald's or someplace that might have free Wi-Fi so that we could look up the micro- directions to our host's house. Normally we look them up further in advance, but we decided not to stop earlier because we were worried that we wouldn't make it there in time before it got to be dark. With no luck in finding a McDonalds, even thought we knew there had to be one around somewhere, we gave our host a call. He gave us directions and we were on our way. By that time the sun had gone down and it was beginning to get dark. Neil, our host, was only a few miles away, so it worked out very well. I turned on my light and away we went. We found his house without any problem at all. Upon arriving and getting our bikes put in the garage, we met Neil's mother-in-law who was visiting from California. After getting settled we each got to take a nice hot shower. Neil was working on making some spaghetti with venison in the sauce and garlic bread , which the 4 of us enjoyed while we were waiting for Amy, Neil's wife, to get home with the their kids, Marcus and Nicholas, who were at wrestling practice when we got there. Dinner was wonderful and we were so happy to have nice full tummies. The rest of the evening we just relaxed and chatted with our hosts. Neil mentioned us staying an extra day and going to school with him tomorrow (he is a 7th and 8th grade history teacher) to talk to his kids, so we might just do that. Another great day. I am so glad that we were able to go to Kansas!! Our miles totaled 64.94 today.
It really was cold last night. We had a couple of the toe warmer packets in our hands/ sleeping bags last night, but they weren't even comparable to the real Hot Hands hand/body warmers that we had a few nights ago. These ones that we had only held heat for about 6 hours vs. 18 hours and were either expired or close to it, so they didn't put out nearly as much heat as the other ones. The Hot Hands ones get so warm that they are hot to the touch, these other ones we had were hardly warm to the touch. So, on the list for today- find some Hot Hands warmers in a store somewhere and re- stock. We will definitely need them to get us through the night tonight and the rest of the time it is this cold outside. It's amazing how much one little thing can help. I didn't sleep all that good last night because I woke up cold a few times in the middle of the night. There wasn't any time that I was comfortably warm once I went to bed for the night. I can't have that happening again- we definitely need to find some more Hot Hands warmers! It was just so cold out this morning. The alarm went off around 7:30/8 and we made an attempt to get out of our sleeping bags, but it was just SO cold. We were really hungry, so we ate some snacks (some yogurt from the hotel, a cinnamon roll from the hotel, and some more potato chips- yes potato chips for breakfast!) in our sleeping bag, and I mean completely in our sleeping bag, it felt way too cold for our heads to even be exposed. We laid there and laid there thinking about how we needed to get up and get riding. It ended up being almost 10 am before we got out of our sleeping bags, and we had woken up around 8! By then the frozen condensation on the walls of our tent had started to melt (and drip on us) and it was a little "warmer" outside. We packed up and bundled up as best we could. The weather channel was right today- we had a nice SW tail wind!!! Although I put on my sweatpants over top of my cycling pants, I almost didn't need it today with the wind at our backs. The sun was shining for the most part and it felt so much warmer not having the wind hitting us in the face. In all reality, it was probably close to the same temperature as it was yesterday afternoon, but it didn't seem nearly as bad. That wind- it can either help us immensely or really hinder us. We are so glad that today will be an easier day! After only about 3-4 miles, we stopped at a gas station/ convenience store to use the restroom and see if they had any cereal and milk for sale. Joey was really hungry, despite having snacked a little, and was ready for a real breakfast. There were some nice tables and booth seats inside the store where we could enjoy our frosted flakes. It was nice to get our fingers, toes and noses warmed up while we sat inside. Although we had only gone a few miles, it worked out just fine stopping so early because it gave it a little more time for it to try to warm up outside. It was of course, still really cold by the time we went outside. As we continued down Old Route 66, we passed by a big plaque for a Route 66 Footrace that happened back in 1928. The guy who won, Andrew Hartley Payne, graduated the year before the race, from the high school in the town we were in (Foyil, OK) and completed the entire world record 3, 423.5 miles (from LA to NYC) in a time of 573 hours, 4 minutes and 34 seconds. It was pretty amazing that they had a race like that way back in 1928. A little further down the road, we saw the signs pointing to the direction of the Route 66 Totem Pole park. We had some very good recommendations to go there by the people that we met in Jenks, near Tulsa. We had wanted to go, but because it was 4-5 miles off the road, we decided to skip it since we had a lot of miles still left to do. It was a bit of a tough choice, but sometimes that's the way it's got to be. We had such a great tailwind that we didn't want to loose our headwind, which would have happened if we turned and headed off in a different direction. But even more importantly than that is it was just too cold to have to ride any extra miles than we had to . Had it been warm weather, we probably would have made sure to go there. I'm just glad we got to see the blue whale yesterday! We had to ride through a few bits of construction later on. The line between the shoulder of the road and the main road surface was separated by a huge drop off that would definitely do some damage if we hit it. After a while longer, we made it to the town of Vinita where we planned to have lunch. Shortly after getting to town, we met a guy named Gerald. He was very intrigued about our trip and asked us quite a few questions. After talking with us for only a couple of minutes, he asked if we were hungry and said he would buy us lunch at McDonald's which was right around the corner. Since he insisted on buying us lunch, our next stop was McDonald's, which we were of course going to stop at anyways to use the internet. Gerald said to order anything that we wanted. I got a regular cheeseburger and fries and Joey got a Big Mac meal. We couldn't believe that after only a couple minutes of knowing us, Gerald bought us lunch! We fully expected him to join us for lunch, but after paying, he said to enjoy the rest of our trip and then headed out the door. What an amazing, unexpected gesture to add a little spark to our day. As we sat there enjoying our lunch, we still couldn't believe that just happened. It had been quite a while since we had fast food, and I have to admit, it was a nice little treat. Just as we were about to leave McDonald's, we saw Gerald again, so we had a chance to thank him one last time. As we were heading out of town, we made a stop at Wal-Mart to see if we could find some more of the hand warmers since we have now realized how vital they are to us being able to sleep when it's in the teens and 20s at night. Sure enough, they had some hand warmers, not the exact ones that I was looking for (the ones that lasted 18hours!), but they did have ones that lasted 12 hours, so I figured that would be just fine. The ride was pretty flat from Vinita to the town of Afton where we ended up stopping for the night. We had plans to go further than that, but when we got there the sun was almost completely under, so we knew it wouldn't take long at all for it to get really dark. We stopped at the gas station for a quick break and then headed out to find a spot to pitch the tent for tonight. On the way out of town, we found a nice church that seemed like it would work just fine. Unfortunately there wasn't anyone around to ask, but again, it was already getting dark and really cold, so we had to get in our sleeping bags. We were inside our sleeping bags for about an hour or so when our tent filled with light. Someone had come to the church for a church meeting! A few minutes later, about 5 more cars came. We asked one of the couples that was on their way into the church if they thought it was ok that we had our tent set up there. They said that we shouldn't have any problems at all and that it was fine. They asked us a couple questions about how long we had been traveling, etc. before heading into the church. About a half hour or so later, everyone came back out and headed home. That same couple that we had asked, along with another guy came over to our tent and asked us if we wanted any coffee or a hot shower!! We of course asked if they had hot cocoa and sure enough they had quite a bit of it! It turns out that the young couple that we had asked before was the pastor and his wife, Blake and Nikki. The other guy that was with him, Michael, was the youth pastor. Of course the thought of a nice hot shower and a cup of hot cocoa on a cold night sounded amazing! So, Nikki ran home real quick to get us a couple towels and the rest of us went inside the fellowship hall next to the church- which was HUGE! We quickly found out why it was such a huge building- it had a full gymnasium inside, fit with bathrooms that have showers! What a great idea- first for the kids that go there, but also for the community. If there was ever some kind of natural disaster or other incident in town that left some of it's residences with destroyed homes or in need of help in some way, they might have a place to stay and or a place to at least get a shower while they get back on their feet. Once Nikki got back, Joey and I each got to take nice hot showers. It was WONDERFUL! After being so cold in our tent, that hot water felt so great. Once we were nice and clean and warm, we got to enjoy a great cup of hot cocoa, or two for that matter as well as some wonderful conversation with Blake, Nikki and Michael. What a great way to spend the evening! It was so nice to relax inside for a little while and get to talk to the three of them, it was SO much more enjoyable than our normal evening in the tent where we end up just laying there from 6pm til morning. We cannot wait until the days get longer again! After chatting with them until almost 10 pm, we headed back in our tent and they headed home. We are looking forward to tomorrow morning because Blake will be back in the morning and we get to go out to breakfast with him at the little cafe down the road! What a fun thing to look forward to; that will give us some motivation the get out of our sleeping bags in the cold tomorrow! What a wonderful day full of surprises! Tonight it will probably going to get down into the low 20s or teens again, but now that we have the warmers, we should be able to get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow is a big day- Kansas and Missouri, the states that we weren't sure if we would be able to get because of the cold, but we are so close now that we just have to get them! Hopefully we have another tail wind tomorrow. Our miles totaled 47.78 today.
We had such a wonderful night's rest last night. The bed was so comfy that I wanted to just stay there forever. Joey went off to breakfast before I did because I just wanted a little longer in the comfy bed and he was really hungry. The continental breakfast was great- everything from bagels to cereal and cinnamon rolls to biscuits and gravy. I had hot cocoa while Joey had juice. We stuffed ourselves and took a little back to the room for later and/or for the road. We found out that check-out wasn't until noon today because of the holiday! Since we don't go to hotels very often, we planned to stay right up until the last minute, kind of a savor every moment before going back out in the cold thing. So, that's what we did. I worked on the website for a little bit, we watched part of a movie, I took another shower since I could take as many as I wanted while at the hotel, and we ate a little more of our breakfast food. We were dreading going out in the cold again, but were very happy that the rain happened yesterday and not on it's scheduled day (today) because that would have made it even harder to leave the hotel. Before we left, I ate my leftovers from Applebees; boy was that pasta alfredo/steak dish good! I usually end up getting the same thing when we go there, but I'm glad I tried one of their new dishes. When it was finally time to go, we braced ourselves for the cold and headed out the door. We knew we wouldn't make our normal amount of miles today since we were leaving so late, but it didn't matter because we got to enjoy the hotel for as long as possible. After being inside the toasty hotel, it sure made it feel even colder outside. The wind was against us, too, which made it even worse. We rode along, with our frozen toesies and slowly got the miles done. Despite the fact that it is so cold, we can see how close we are getting to Kansas, and that keeps us going. We stopped more frequently than normal at gas stations and fast food restaurants to warm up a little and that helped. It was a very slow going day because of that darn wind, and partly because I don't feel like our muscles work as well in the cold. Ever since we left Leonard, my knees have been hurting and haven't gotten any better, and I think the cold weather is to blame for that. After riding for a while, we made it onto Route 66 again! It's cool that we got to ride on it for a while in California and now again in Oklahoma! A few miles into the ride on 66, we passed one of the old Route 66 roadside attractions; The Blue Whale. It was an old water park that was built back in the 70s that featured a gigantic whale that had slides and a place to jump off the tail into the water below. It was free to go walk around and go see it since it is no longer in use (it closed down in 1988) and was pretty cool. After that, we were on our way again. We rode through the city of Claremore where we decided we would get something to eat. Subway again today!! It was around 2:30 when we got into town. We stopped at the first Subway we saw and asked if there were anymore further into town. Sure enough, there were 3 more! Even though we were hungry, we figured it would be good to get down the road a little further before stopping. Not to mention, there were some snowflakes beginning to fall. So, 3-4 miles later, we stopped at another Subway on the way out of town. We decided that we would each get a full sub so that we wouldn't have to worry about getting hungry later tonight. As we sat there in the warm restaurant, we looked outside. All day we've been seeing the temperature readings on the banks and other business signs. The readings have been between 27 and 32 degrees all day. There was a sign right across the street from the Subway so there was a constant reminder of how cold it was out there. Even after finishing our subs, we sat there inside for an extra half hour or so; it was just so hard to get ourselves to go back outside. When we finally did, we thought about taking a motel for the night because it was so cold, but at the same time didn't really want to do that since we just had one last night. We decided to start riding on and if we happened to see one, we would stop and check, and if not we would just keep riding until we found someplace to set up our tent. I guess it worked out the way it was supposed to because we didn't pass any motels on the way out of town. We were really cold but we knew we would be stopping at the first spot we saw because our sleeping bags were calling us. We made it to the next little town of Sequoya and saw a nice church that had a little nook between the buildings where we would be able to get out of the wind and hopefully be a little bit warmer. Unfortunately there was no one in sight at all anywhere in the town, let alone at the church, so we didn't have a chance to ask anyone if it would be ok to set up there. Either way, we set up as fast as we could and got right into our sleeping bags. We were pretty cold and were in a way wishing that we were in a hotel room, but we knew that we would make it just fine and that these kinds of things were all part of the adventure. But- we're "tough" so we can handle it. Apparently we are "tougher than everyone in Oklahoma," because almost every single person we talk to said the same thing- "You are both way tougher than I am- I could never do that." We thought it was pretty funny that almost everyone said the same thing- we've never noticed so many people saying the same thing like that before and didn't notice people mentioning anything about toughness, but I think it's just because it's cold out here. Soon enough we will be down near the Gulf and be where it's warmer again; being in the cold won't last forever. As I was completely inside my sleeping bag, head and all, typing my journal, I was comfortably warm. I think that is the key for me, to just be completely inside my sleeping bag so that none of the warm air gets out, my face is warm, and the warm air I exhale goes into the sleeping bag and not into the air outside of it. It's going to be another long night and it will be very hard to get up in the morning, but it will all be worth it when we accomplish the goal of riding in Kansas and Missouri. Before bed, we snacked on some potato chips that we had gotten yesterday for while we watched the ball drop on TV. I was thinking about it again today, and it was still weird being in a different time zone for NYE. We watched the usual NYC NYE celebration at 11 and then watched the central time zone "ball" drop coverage- which took place in Nashville where a music note was "dropped" and also in New Orleans where they had some kind of symbol that related to NO that was dropped. It was a spit screen coverage of what was happening live, but it wasn't nearly as exciting as the one in NYC. So we got to watch 3 ball drops yesterday in all reality. It's still crazy that we are already through the first day of 2013. It was a very cold day today and will be a very cold night, probably in the teens or low 20s. Like expected, we didn't get a ton of miles today since we left the hotel so late. Our miles totaled 28.06 today.
Although we already knew we were incredibly lucky to have been invited to sleep indoors, at the time we just didn't know how lucky we really were. Around midnight, it started to pour rain and it continued right straight through to morning. Everything would have been soaked had we been out in our tent. There was also a good chance our sleeping bags might have gotten a little wet on the outside too since our tent is getting old. As we sat there this morning staring out the window, we just couldn't believe that we were inside and that things worked out this well. We knew it was supposed to rain, but the weather forecast didn't predict it would be here until Jan. 1st last time we checked. Despite waking up to the sound of rain last night, we went back to sleep very happily knowing we were indoors. We slept SO much better last night than we have the past two nights and it was much needed as we were pooped. Since we had such a big meal yesterday and had snacked a little last night, we were not super starving this morning for breakfast. We just had a few snacks and the last of our mini bagels and ham that Beth gave us. Those really did help keep us going for a few days. We dreaded going outside, since the rain would not let up, but knew that we had to at some point. Since we slept in and really took our time this morning (since we didn't have to rush to get riding so we would be a little warmer like we have to do when we are in our tent), it ended up being after 10 before we left this morning. Once we had everything, we left the wonderful warmth of the fellowship hall, locked the door behind us, and were out ready to face the cold and rain. The parking lot was a bit flooded from the relentless rain and so were some sections of the sidewalk, which we opted to take for a little bit to avoid riding on the busier road with the cars and all of the spray they threw up. We rode on some narrow country roads before getting to the next little suburb of Tulsa, Jenks. By that time, even though we had only gone 7 miles, we were frozen to the bone. It didn't take long for the rain to soak us and the cold upper 30's weather was brutal since we were soaked. Toes were numb and legs were colder than they normally are. As we were waiting at a stoplight about to cross a bridge over a river, a nice guy got out of his car in the pouring rain to see if we wanted a cup of hot tea and a place to take a little break and warm up. He owns a nutrition store that has all kinds of wonderful hot teas and shakes. We were only a couple blocks from his store, and a cup of hot tea sounded wonderful. So, we turned around and followed him to his shop. When we got there, the ladies that were working there made each of us a nice cup of hot tea. Joey had strawberry kiwi and I had raspberry lemonade. They were awesome! One of the best things about them is that they are designed to raise your core temperature up by 1 degree, in doing so burning about 200 calories too. With cold weather like this, that helped us warm up nice and quickly. Not to mention they were just so tasty. One of the ladies that was there also wrapped me up in her nice long winter coat, so I warmed up even quicker! We had such a great time chit chatting with them as we enjoyed our tea! Before leaving, they even gave us a few pointers on safer roads to take to get to where we were headed, which was nice. Not only was it a great break filled with wonderful conversation and tea, but because we took that break, we escaped the rain quite a bit. When we were ready to leave, we noticed that the rain had stopped! Now we were starting off nice and warm with no rain! What more could we ask for!? We rode over some rolling hills for a little bit before the road flattened out. At that point, there was also quite a lot of traffic, so we took to the sidewalk for as long as we could. Like the roads near Dallas, there was no room for cyclists, and they have misfit sidewalks that end in random places and vary in widths and quality throughout. Either way, we were much safer on the sidewalk away from all these crazy drivers! I'm pretty sure they don't see a ton of cyclists out here because they don't seem to know how to react to them as they are driving quite as well as other areas we've been in. And I forgot to mention that yesterday on the way into Glenpool, someone thought it would be funny to throw a McDonald's McFlurry cup at Joey. Luckily they missed because had it been full, that would have been quite the mess and would have made him even colder than he already was. I don't really understand some of these drivers; it's a little depressing that people could be so ignorant. This is another place that we are pretty sure we would never want to move. After a couple hours of cycling, we made it to our destination! We were both just SO excited at that point because this is something we've been planning for quite a while now. Our room at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites was waiting for us. The best part is that it was only about 1:30 when we got there, so we still have almost all day to relax and enjoy the hotel. We had early check- in set up and were able to head to our room right when we got there. The girl at the front desk was very accommodating with our bikes as she put us right on the first floor so we didn't have to try to squeeze in the elevator. When we opened the door to our room, we were amazed- it was HUGE. We had just got a normal single bed room with nothing fancy, but ended up with a huge room! It was extra spacious to accomodate a wheel chair, but in our case, was perfect because then we didn't have to feel cramped with our bikes in there. Both of us agreed that we've never seen such a spacious "normal" hotel room!! As if we weren't already excited enough! The first thing we wanted was a hot shower since we were frozen. After that, we just laid there and relaxed for a while before deciding that we were starving from having eaten hardly anything today. All of the restaurants and Target were about a mile and a half away, so that's where we headed. This time- by foot. It felt like a long walk, but anytime you are going somewhere that you've never been before, it always ends up feeling long on the way there for some reason. Our first stop was Applebee's for a NYE/birthday dinner. Since we were so hungry and knew this meal was going to last us the rest of the day too, we ordered the appetizer sampler. Oh how I love Applebee's appetizers. Boneless wings, mozzerella sticks, quesadillas and spinach artichoke dip with tortilla chips! For our entrees, Joey got his usual burger- this time a "Cowboy Burger" and I ordered a fettecini pasta/steak dish that was heavenly. Of course we couldn't leave Applebee's without getting my favorite dessert- a Triple chocolate melt down! Our waitress brought me a cup of ice cream with whipped cream on it for my birthday, too. Although I didn't get the traditional "Happy happy birthday, for Applebee's to you, we wish it was our birthday, so we could party too" song they usually sing, I was totally happy with my ice cream. Maybe the singing thing is just in NY, or maybe they didn't sing because it was a slow part of the day and hardly anyone was there. After our awesome dinner, we made a quick stop at Target to get a couple snacks for New Years Eve since we knew we would get a little hungry by the time midnight rolled around. The walk back to the hotel seemed so fast compared to the way from there. We were back to the room by 5:30, so we had plenty of time to relax, go in the hot tub, and just be vegetables and watch some TV. We looked up the 2012 "year in review" videos online and watched the 2013 "rockin' new years eve celebration in times square" just like we would have done at home. We had a little chance to Skype Joey's family and talk to some family at home to wish them a Happy New Year. At 10 pm central time, the channel with the NYE show on it changed over to the local news. We had to try to find the show on another channel. We found a show in NYC, but it wasn't quite the same. Instead of showing all the music and excitement, there was just a couple people standing their blabbing on about nothing important. But, the most important part- the ball drop, was shown, so that's all that mattered! It is so weird to be an hour difference- that is definitely a first, and probably one of the few times in our lives that we will be in a different time zone for New Years. At one point this evening, we got to talk to Joey's brother Andy in China, and it's been 2013 for 12 hours already. It wasn't as fun as New Years Eve is normally when we are home, but it was still fun since we took the hotel tonight. We had a nice lighter day of 20.08 miles today. Another great day~ I am so glad that they rain came last night and today instead of when it was originally predicted to come. It would have made it REALLY hard to leave the hotel tomorrow if it had happened then instead. Also- having it happen today gave us plenty of time to get our clothes and shoes all dried out over the heater in our room; we will start dry and warm tomorrow! Goodbye to such a fantastic memory filled 2012 and Hello to a continuation of memories and a new start back in Buffalo for 2013!!! Happy New Year Everyone!!
It's my birthday!!!!! I got a call at midnight Eastern time from my Mom last night, but apparently was too sleepy to know. Joey said that I "woke up" looked at the phone and then went back to sleep. It's a bit crazy since I don't remember doing that at all. Guess I was really getting some great sleep! So, I am now 24 and spent 295 days of my 23rd year of life away from home and on this fun adventure. Although that seems like a lot, it won't compare at all to Joey's 24th year, since we started this trip 5 days after his birthday and will end the trip over a year later! He will have spent almost the entire 24th year on the trip. It was a little easier getting out of our sleeping bags today since we had the hand warmers, which are still going strong since we opened them around 7 pm last night. The fact that we were going to the convenience store to get milk and knew we would be eating indoors helped quite a bit too! When we opened the tent, we could see that it had most definitely frosted last night. The grass was covered and so were the bikes and panniers. Breakfast was very enjoyable since we were nice and toasty. We had some Honey Bunches of oats with strawberries- our new favorite kind. It was hard, however, to go back outside knowing we would soon be cold again. As it was getting closer to 9:30, we knew we should get on the road before it got to be too late. The wind was finally going the right way!! It wasn't very strong, but it wasn't against us, so that made us very happy. My birthday wish had come true- all I asked for was a tailwind! We made much better time this morning and before we knew it we were back to the I-40. Although it's not our favorite place to ride, we had about 10 miles to do on it to get to Henryetta where we would turn to go north to Tulsa. As we were climbing the entrance ramp, we could see that there was a whole bunch of construction going on. Traffic was reduced to one lane in each direction as they were working on re-doing the east bound side. We got a little nervous about that, but not 2 seconds after reaching the top of the entrance ramp, one of the construction workers came right over to us and brought us through the construction area to the closed down east bound side of the road. He said there would be a few construction vehicles and trucks every once in awhile, but that we would be MUCH safer riding there. We thanked him numerous times and were on our way again. We couldn't believe it- we had the ENTIRE east bound side of the interstate to ourselves while the traffic was stuck on one lane roads on the west bound side. It was incredible. The road surface was brand new, so it was just a joy to ride on in general. We were so thankful that the construction worker was looking out for us and took us over there. I can't imagine how scary it would have been to try to ride along the other side with the one way traffic. There was a cement barrier down the middle of the west bound road and there were cones and hardly any room on the side where we would have been. It would have been a nightmare. Instead, the ride on the I-40 there turned into a dream ride. That is something that we will never be able to do again I'm sure. It almost felt like they had "shut down" this side just for us because as we were riding along on this massive stretch of open road, we were watching the cars all jammed together on the tiny narrow section of road on the other side. Sometimes it really does pay to be the one on the bicycle! Around the 23rd mile mark of the day, we stopped at a restaurant called "Chair Crushers Buffet and Grill" on the outskirts of Henryetta. It was originally called the Pig Out Palace, or at least that is what all the signs near the interstate called it. It was the perfect spot for a birthday buffet of homestyle food. Mashed potatoes, corn, fried chicken, ham, salad, baked beans, sweet potatoes, and so much more! There was even soft serve ice cream for dessert- not that ice cream was on the top of the list for desserts for today with the cold, but you know us, we can NEVER turn down ice cream! It was so nice. I got a few calls from home with some more birthday wishes! This was definitely a special birthday since it's the first one that I've ever cycled on-and froze my tooshie off on, for that matter! After stuffing ourselves to the brim, we continued on. After that, we rolled through the main part of Henryetta and then turned to head North to Tulsa. At that point, the wind was perfect!! We were moving right along, FINALLY! Joey and I were just SO happy! We stopped for a very quick internet check in Okmulgee before continuing on to Glenpool. The last 15 miles had quite a bit of climbing which made us sweat quite a bit since we were so bundled up. The only bad part is that on the way down you just get so incredibly cold then. It's a vicious cycle. The low 40s are probably one of the worst temperatures to ride at just for that reason. If it was colder, we wouldn't be sweating like that, and if it was warmer, we wouldn't need to be bundled up so much. It's such a tricky temperature to ride at. Upon arriving in Glenpool, we stopped at McDonald's for a little warm up break. Those little breaks seem to help so much because it gives our toes and faces a chance to warm up enough to get a few more miles done before we are feeling really cold again. Once warm enough, we headed down the road. There was a very nice little church that had a whole bunch of open grassy land around it, so we figured that would be a good place to check if we could set up our tent. We were very happy to see that there were cars there in the parking lot so we would have an opportunity to ask if we could set up our tent. We got their just before their bible study started, so I was very happy to not be interrupting anything. Pastor Todd said it wouldn't be any problem at all for us to set up our tent there and that if the police came by to tell them that "Pastor Todd said it was ok." Happy that we had permission, we headed to find a spot out of the way to set up.We had the tent up in no time and got in our sleeping bags right away. Poor Joey wasn't feeling good as his stuffy nose was still lingering and he had a really bad headache. I gave him a couple asperin, and that seemed to help a little. An hour or so later, we heard a couple people walking towards our tent. Then we heard something amazing. Pastor Todd said "we would like to welcome you to sleep inside our fellowship hall if you would like. It only has wooden floors, but it would be nice and warm!" We were just so surprised and excited!! What a wonderful birthday this has turned out to be. First we get a tailwind and then we get to sleep indoors tonight! Since it was so cold, we just did a quick move of all our stuff right into the fellowship hall. They told us we could put our bikes right inside with us so we wouldn't have to worry about them and so that is what we did. We didn't even take the tent down outside. Instead, we carried it right inside so we could take it down where it was nice and toasty. It was amazing, there were tables and chairs, lights, a bathroom, a microwave, and most importantly, it was so incredibly toasty!! We couldn't thank Pastor Todd enough! After Pastor Todd and the other fellow that was there departed, we noticed a little brown bag sitting on each of our sleeping bags. When we looked inside it was full of chocolates, peppermints, gummies, and peanuts! They had left each of us a little Christmas goodie bag!! It was so sweet of them and such a great surprise! Once we were all settled, we had a glass of soda each (they said to help ourselves to ANYTHING that was in the kitchen, and made a point to tell us they had a lot of soda- which they did!). To go along with that, we cooked up a bag of popcorn for a little birthday treat. We went from going to bed around 6 or 7 to not having to go to bed until 10 or later if we wanted. We were warm and there was electricity! It was a cold day to ride, but I couldn't have asked for a better birthday between the ride down the I-40, the tailwind, getting to sleep indoors, and the surprise goodie bag of candy. It was wonderful. We got very close to the hotel we have reservations at for tomorrow, so we have a nice short day to look forward to. We can even sleep in!!! Our miles totaled 64.61today.
What a long night it was. It had to be another night in the teens. For almost the whole night, I laid there in a semi-awake state. I could never get warm enough to really get into a good deep sleep. When I "woke up" this morning I felt like I hadn't slept hardly at all. It's no comparison to yesterday night when we were in a nice warm bed. Even after yesterday's wonderful nights rest, we were still exhausted about 20 miles into the ride because of the wind; we're hoping the wind will be better today. We both struggled to get out of our sleeping bags this morning, but had decided that since the hot chocolate was so good last night that we would head straight over to the convenience store and get a nice big glass for breakfast. Before we got out of our sleeping bags completely, we snacked on the mini bagels and ham that Beth had sent with us so that we would have a little something in our bellies besides just hot cocoa. Once we were changed into our cycling clothes (probably one of the hardest parts of the being in the cold) and out of our sleeping bags we got to the convenience store as fast as we could so we could get in where it was warm. It was so nice to just sit there in the warm dining room with that huge cup of hot cocoa. As our toes warmed up and we sipped our cocoa, we watched a little of the weather channel to see what was in store for us the next few days. We knew that the detour to ride to Kansas and Missouri would be tough, and we were right. But either way- we aren't going to give up on those two states even if it is cold. Instead we will just complain to each other about the cold and stop at every convenience store we see just to stand inside for a few minutes to warm up. We will make it, I am sure of it! The wind was still going in the wrong direction today, but it didn't seem to be quite as strong as yesterday, which was really good because we didn't have a whole ton of energy to waste pushing through another wind like that. The sun was shining bright today, though, so there was hope that it would warm up a little by this afternoon. It was still much better than yesterday's cloudy, foggy, gloomy day! As we were riding along, a couple dogs decided we looked like fun things to chase. We've noticed that happening more and more lately- something we didn't see at all in the desert or in most of the areas we've ridden in the last few months. Luckily none of the dogs we've seen the last couple of days have been ferocious, but it may be time to buy a new can of Halt (since ours were taken when we crossed the border into Canada this summer), just in case one of these dogs ends up being ferocious. It has happened before where they try to bite at our ankles, so that Halt spray can really come in handy. The road crossed more rolling hills and meandered here and there before we got to the little town of Allen. It wasn't quite lunch time, but we were already a little hungry and needed a little something to keep us going and a chance to warm up for a few minutes. We stopped at a convenience store/ deli and got an order of hot potato wedges. That turned out to be enough to keep us going for a while so we didn't have to worry about stopping again for a while. After that town, our path turned a little and we had a tail wind for a few miles which was a wonderful break. We passed through a couple more tiny towns, stopping for a quick potty break at one of the convenience stores. By that time the temperature warmed up to somewhere in the low 40s. We almost felt warm sitting in there in the sun! I guess we thought it was warmer than it really was because we took off our face masks and ended up putting them back on about 2 miles down the road when we turned onto another road that would take us all the way to the I-40. We had a straight head wind on that new road, but the wind had died down a few mph even since this morning, so it wasn't too bad. As is the norm now, we passed by quite a few fields filled with cows and horses. The one herd of cows saw us and came running clear from the other side of their field to the fence near the road. It is so funny to watch, but a little sad at the same time because I think that they think we are coming to see them or give them food. They always look a bit sad and confused when we just keep riding by. A little while later, we had another dog friend come visit us. As I was riding up, I could see the doggie was standing on it's two back feet had his paws right up on Joey's chest getting some attention. After I got there, the doggie came running over to me and did the same thing. She was so cute and wanted nothing but attention. Being dog lovers it was hard to leave her. When we started riding again, she started to follow us, and continued to follow us. We heard a couple yells from the kids on the trampoline at the dog's house saying to "just keep going, she will come back home." It was getting closer to dark, so we had to keep riding anyways. That doggie ran next to us for longer than I've ever seen any dog run with us. We were beginning to get very worried because she ended up being almost a mile away from home. There wasn't a ton of traffic which was good, but we were still worried that she might get hit by a car. Eventually she stopped when she realized that she was far from home. She watched as we rode away and then turned around and headed back to the house. She seemed pretty street smart, but I still prayed that she would make it back ok without getting hit. A few miles later, we arrived in the town of Wetumka. After a quick ride around town to get our bearings, we stopped at the grocery store and bought a box of cereal for the morning. There was a nice little convenience store on the way out of town that sold milk (since if we bought it tonight it would freeze) and also had a table for us to eat indoors at. Since the time we got into town, the temperature had already dropped from 41 to 29, and it wasn't even 7pm yet. Another cold night was ahead of us. We were very hungry for dinner since we hadn't eaten a whole lot today and were looking for somewhere so we could at least be warm while we ate our dinner. We happened upon the post office which had unlocked doors. It was nice and warm inside, so we figured that would be a perfect place to sit and eat our dinner. We cooked up a Voila frozen pasta, chicken, veggie dinner outside on the sidewalk and then sat on the floor inside to eat. It was wonderful- such a good idea. At one point we even thought that if the doors were going to be open all night that we would just roll our sleeping bags out on the floor inside and sleep in there. But, that thought soon came to an end just as we were finishing up our dinner. The policeman came by to do his nightly lock up of the post office. He was very nice and didn't mind at all that we ate in the warm building. So, it was on to plan B- the church. There was a nice little spot behind the church that was out of the way, so even if for some reason we weren't packed and already gone before people came to church in the morning, we wouldn't be bothering anyone or be in the way. After last night in the cold and not getting any sleep, we needed to figure out some way to get warm. That is when I remembered I had a few of the "Hot Hands" hand warmer packets. I originally bought them for when we are riding, but now seemed like a much better time to use them. That did the trick! The ones that we had- "Super Hand and Body Warmers" were perfect. They lasted up to 18hours and really did get hot- with an average temp of 140 degrees! We each had just one and they heated our sleeping bags up enough that we would easily be able to fall asleep. Thank goodness!!! We snacked on some Jam cookies that grammy sent with her last care package and then huddled in our sleeping bags. I guess I'm tougher than I thought I was- sleeping outside for multiple nights in 15-25 degree weather after cycling in the cold all day and still being in high spirits is a good sign. I look back to the days before I ever rode bike and I know I would have never imagined I would ever do something like this! I am so glad that things turned out this way though- I can't imagine it any other way now. Who would have know I would find such joy in such an adventure as this! We did a little better miles wise today, having a total of 54.73. We are less that 80 miles away from Tulsa now, so it looks like we will make it just as we planned for New Years Eve! We are both looking forward to that so much, since it's something we've been planning to do for months- go to a hotel for NYE! Can't wait!!
|
|