Yesterday, John mentioned to us that the weather for tomorrow (today) was supposed to be 100% rain (but that Friday was supposed to be clear and sunny). With that being said, he mentioned that we were more than welcome to take a day off there and go with him and Susan to their Arkansas Cycling Club meeting in the evening. Of course, it is never much fun cycling in the pouring rain, especially when it pours for the entire day. So, wit the following day being clear, we decided that it would be much more enjoyable to take the day off (plus it sounded like fun to go to the cycling meeting!). I guess it worked out really well that we decided to take a day off because after not sleeping the other night, I must have been super tired. Joey let me sleep in and he finally came to wake me up at 10am! I couldn't believe that I slept so long, but I guess I needed it. Joey and I had the rest of our Cocoa Puffs from yesterday morning along with some huge cups of hot cocoa for breakfast. For most of the day, I tried over and over again to be productive by catching up on blogs, but didn't have much luck. Joey wanted to watch a couple movies, and of course I did too. That darn TV really makes me such an unproductive person- which is one reason that we didn't have cable, DISH, etc. when we were home. Even though I wasn't productive in the least bit, we had a great day of relaxing, watching movies, and playing with Smitty. Later that afternoon when John got back to the house from doing what he needed to do, he ran us to the bike shop so that Joey could get a new chain, cassette, more patches, and a couple new tubes. When we got back to the house, Joey got the cassette changed and the new chain put on just in time to get ready to go to the cycling club meeting, which was at a restaurant in the same plaza as the bike shop we had gone to earlier. We had a great time at the meeting with chances to to talk to quite a few of the members and hear about some of the tours that they have done. John and Susan treated us to dinner again at the meeting- boy do we feel spoiled!! The food was so good though. We both got mushroom swiss burgers- yummmmmy! When the meeting started, the president welcomed all the guests, including us, and asked us to talk a little about our trip. John, as well as a few other members, asked us a questions about different things and we answered them the best we could (it's often hard to answer questions like "what's been the best part" because there are so many great memories and often different reasons for liking different ares.) We are very glad that we decided to stay an extra day. Going to the meeting made us excited for when we get to go to the cycling club when we get back home. When we got back to the house, the 4 of us relaxed for the rest of the days. The movie "The Hunger Games" was on tv, so we ended up watching that. Every time I see that movie now, I think of when we were in Fort Collins, CO and we went to the Drive-in with Jesse and Lauren and saw that movie. That is such a good movie. We ended up going to bed a little late, but having not ridden today and with Joey letting me sleep in, I didn't feel overly tired. Either way, it is always so nice to sleep in a bed. That is one thing about this tour- I have learned to appreciate things so much more- sleeping in a bed, showers, washing dishes in a sink, etc. Before I ever toured these were all things that were just part of daily life and taken for granted. It's just one part of how our perspective on life has changed through the trip. We are so blessed to have the opportunity to do this. We had a wonderful rest day today.
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