We woke up very rested, warm, and ready for the day's ride. First thing on the agenda today was the continental breakfast. They had fruit, juice, hot cocoa, cereal and milk, yogurt, and those really big Belgium waffles! After breakfast I walked over to Walmart to get a couple "Voila" frozen dinners for the road. It worked out really nice that it was so close to the hotel. As I was walking over, I was happy to see a pretty strong wind blowing from the North- we were going to have a tailwind today!! Even though it was cold, the most important thing was that it was dry. We were able to get all of our clothes, and even our cycling shoes dried out on the heater in the hotel, so that was a tremendous help. It's no problem riding in the cold as long as we are dry. We took our time getting ready this morning as we wanted to get the most out of our hotel and being indoors before gong out into the cold. Just as we were finishing our packing, I heard what sounded like rain outside. At that point, I thought- it couldn't be! The weather forecast said that it was going to be cold the next couple of days- but that it was also going to be dry. When we looked outside, it was even worse than we had thought. Not only was it raining, but it was FREEZING RAIN! Right then and there, our happy spirits dwindled quickly. Had we wasted going to a hotel yesterday, just to have weather just as bad today? We hardly ever take hotels and try to save them for when we really need one. We checked the weather forecast again today after we saw the freezing rain outside. The forecast took a complete 360 since we looked at it last night. It is amazing how wrong they were. Had we have known that there would be this kind of weather, we probably would have kept riding yesterday, even if it meant shivering and shaking from the cold. Oh, well. What's done is done. But looking on the bright side, all of our clothes are warm and dry, so we should get quite a few miles done before we start to feel really cold. We were a little reluctant to head out at first, but knew we had to get further south and fast. There were a couple icy patches in the parking lot, but there was enough traffic on the road, that it was just wet. The only problem with that is that the mist from the cars was getting us wet. The freezing rain wasn't really an issue in terms of getting wet because it just bounced off us. After a few miles, the main problem was our feet. The water from the road and the cars just soaked our feet, mine faster than Joey's since my shoes are so worn out that the rubber on the bottom is separated from the bottom of the shoe. Good thing that there are only a couple months left of the trip- they should make it home. Those poor shoes- they are my original pair from when I first started cycling. I wore them for the 15,000 miles on my road bike and the almost 17,000 that is on my touring bike now. I guess you could say that I got my money's worth out of them! It will almost be a little sad when I can't wear them anymore; they've gone so many places and are just so comfy now. Our toes weren't the only things that were frozen. The further and further that we rode, the more the ice started building up on our bikes. We had to apply our brakes every once in a while to try to keep the ice off the rims in case we needed to stop. Not only that, but a tube of ice had formed around all of our cables and spokes. Our rear derailers froze solid, so much so that we were unable to even change gears. What a nightmare. Luckily for us, we were getting further and further into the flat lands, so we didn't need as wide of a range of gears anyways. It was pretty slow going. Ice was also slowly building up on our cassette (rear gears). After a while, there was so much ice that my chain wouldn't even sit on the gears. Instead, it would bounce around as I pedaled going "clunk- clunk-clunka-di-clunk.....," as if I wasn't going slow enough already. The only thing that saved us was having that tailwind from the north. It's amazing because the clouds in the upper level atmosphere were moving in a completely different direction from the way the wind was blowing down here, hence the freezing rain. About 12-15 miles into the ride, we came across a little gas station. We decided to stop and get ourselves warmed up a little so that we would be able to at least get to the next town. As we sat there sipping on a cup of hot cocoa that we split, we started to dethaw a little. Our coats had a layer of ice on them and were very crunchy as we moved. Same for any other water spots, either on our booties, helmets, or bikes. Ice everywhere. The little break inside did wonders. I could feel my toes again! With nice hot cocoa in our bellies, we were ready to go tackle the freezing rain some more. At one point, the freezing rain stopped coming down, but that obviously didn't change the amount of ice that was on us and the bikes. There was enough water on the ground to make sure that the ice continued to form on us and the bikes. We felt like we just weren't getting anywhere. No gears, jumping chains, no front brakes for Joe- so much ice. Our bikes were almost to the point where they were un-rideable. We were moving very slowly and had hoped that we would be able to just make it to the next town, Hamburg, which was still about 10 miles away from where we stopped for hot cooca. We thought that if we could just find someplace, like a fire hall, or something where we could get our bikes warmed up enough that the ice would melt, we would be able to ride a bit further. At one point, a silver car passed us and the driver was looking at us pretty intently. We must have looked pretty funny since we were moving so slow on mostly flat ground. A minute or so later, we saw that same car do a U- turn and pass us again going the opposite direction. Then, less than a minute later, that same silver car pulled up next to us with their window down. The nice lady inside asked if we needed any help. Now normally, we are fine and don't need anything- but this time- we really did need some help. We told her that we really needed a place we could put our bikes to get them warm. Since she was in the middle of the road, and it was hard to talk, she pulled over on the shoulder and I ran over and talked to her. She said that we were more than welcome to come to her house in Hamburg and warm up. Chris told us her address and said that she would be there in about a half hour because she had to pick her kids up from school (they were getting let out early because of the weather). She wanted so badly to just put our bikes in the back of her little SUV and take us there, but we told her that they might not fit and it would be ok if we just rode there. Joe and I just couldn't believe it. Every time that we really do need some help, we are sent an angel. Someone upstairs is definitely looking out for us- we have been so blessed on this trip. We had about 6 miles to go to get there. It was slow going, but we still made it there without breaking down. Chris lived close to the edge of town, which helped because by that point, the less our bikes had to go the better. She was there waiting for us and we were able to take our bikes right inside. The room we put them in had a cement floor, so there was no worries that the floor would get ruined as they started to melt. It was wonderful. Joey and I were back to our super happy mood that we started out having this morning before the freezing rain started. We had been rescued, there is no doubt about it. There was a nice heater that we could stand in front of to get warm and that alone was amazing. It turns out that they decided to keep the kids at school until the end of the day anyways, so there weren't any kids there when we arrived. Since our pants were soaked again we got changed into dry clothes pretty quickly. Chris offered for us to do laundry while we were there if we needed to. It had been a few days and we did have quite a bit to wash by that point. Not only did she rescue us, but we also got to do laundry too! We relaxed on the sofa for a little bit, tried to play with their puppy, Bella (without much luck since she was scared of strangers and would run away if you got near her) and then went with her to pick up her daughters at her neighbor's house. Chris, and her husband Aaron (who was working at the time) had 3 kids- Brynn, Bret, and Bree. A little while after picking the girls up, Bret came home on the bus. All 3 of the kids were so cute. As we were watching the weather channel on the TV, we could just see the amount of freezing rain still coming towards us. It still amazes me that the weather forecast yesterday could have been so off. With all of that freezing rain still coming, and the winter storm warning, Chris said that we should just stay here for the night. We were thinking about how our bikes were riding and knew that we would just run into the same problem again a few miles down the road, so we decided that that would probably be best. Chris happened to have a box that we could use to mail some things home, including the licence plates that we had found for these states. She took us to the post office in town so that we could get everything mailed. That was such a big help to get that done. Later on that evening, we went out to a local restaurant called "Sawyer's," where a few of Chris's friends and their kids came to join us. We got to try something that is very popular in this area- fried pickles. I'm not normally a huge fan of pickles, but these were very yummy! For dinner Joey got his usual cheeseburger, while I got chicken fried steak with gravy on top. SO yummy. We ended up getting some homemade chocolate pie for dessert too! What a great way to spend an evening- great food and great people. Not only were we joined by some friends of Chris, but we were also joined by one of the town reporters for the newspaper, the sports guy! He asked us a few questions, some of which were hard to answer because it is hard to pick a single "best" or "favorite" because there are so many great stories and places, and instances where there are multiple stories that could answer the same question. It would be neat to have an article in the paper there in Hamburg! For the rest of the evening, we just relaxed. The reporter's teenage daughter wanted to meet us, so they stopped over and talked with us about our trip for a while. It's amazing how our day went from one extreme to another- freezing rain and bikes that were barely rideable to being inside where it is warm and enjoying a nice dinner with some very nice people. Now we can say that we really do understand "Southern Hospitality!" We only made it 28.98 miles today, but with our bikes the way they were, I am almost surprised we made it that far. We will see what the weather brings tomorrow and keep our fingers crossed.