Both of us had a fantastic night's sleep last night. We woke up around 7:30 and just relaxed in the warmth and comfyness of our guess room. When Alicia and Cassia woke up, so did Sweetie. She came running into our room and I got to have some puppy time. It was so cute because she would jump all over on top of the bed rolling around and burrowing her head in the pillows. Such a cuddly puppy. When Ed woke up, he made us some yummy scrambled eggs with cheese and we somehow finished off the remainder of the loaf of the amazing homemade bread topped with either honey or homemade strawberry jam. A great way to start the day. The weather, as we knew was not looking too good today. We had the option to stay another day with this wonderful family, but decided that since we actually have somewhat of a deadline now (to get to Wheeling, WV by the 20th if possible), that we better keep moving and get a few more miles out of the way. We both had such a great time last night and would have loved to play some more Twister or possibly Monopoly, tonight, but regardless of the weather, we have to try to get as many miles done as we can. So, with our bellies full, and our bags all packed, we headed out for the day. It was a bit sad saying goodbye. Unfortunately, I didn't see Tomato out and about this morning, so I didn't get to give him a hug before I left, but I'm sure that Cassia will make up for that. I hope that when we get a kitty someday, that he is as lovey as Tomato is. Although it was overcast and we knew the rain would soon be approaching, we were very happy because we had a great tailwind. Once we were back out on the main highway, the entire northbound lane was closed for construction, but had a great asphalt surface to ride on- so that's what we did. We just cruised along with our wonderful tail wind without a care in the world- no traffic to bother us and all the room in the world to ride. It was great- reminded us of that one section of the I 40 we had to ride for a few miles that had the same kind of thing back in Dec. on my birthday. The great treat of a road all to ourselves lasted about 5-6 miles and then we were on the shoulder again, which was none to shabby to say the least. It was nice and wide for almost the entire way before we had to make a turn onto hwy 30 to go towards Athens. Somewhere along the way, I hit a piece of glass and so, had a flat tire on my rear wheel. We pulled into the closest place where we could get off the road, and it happened to be a Dollar General- since those seem to be in every little town. My sweetie, as usual, did all the hard work in fixing the tire, and as usual, I was the tool getter girl. We got the first 13 miles done really fast, but once we turned our beautiful tail wind turned into a side wind of course, and along with it came the rain that we've been expecting. We got poured on the entire rest of the way to Athens. It wasn't terribly cold, so it wasn't unbearable, but like anytime riding in the rain, it's still not much fun getting soaked. We rode through the downtown portion of Athens, past the Tennessee Wesleyan College, and over a few more hills as the rain continued to come down harder. We planned on stopping for lunch a little early with the rain if we happened to find someplace to go inside for a bit. Sure enough, once we got over another hill, we saw an Ingles grocery store. It was perfect because we could put our bikes under the overhang and they would stay out of the rain, and we could head inside. There happened to be some tables inside AND free wifi! It was the perfect place to get out of the rain for a little bit. Originally we planned on cooking up something for lunch, but neither of us were in the mood for that, so we just split one of the Ingles Subs (and I got a few donuts from the bakery, too, just because they looked mouthwatering- and they were!). The sub was delicious- and SO much cheaper than going to Subway, that's for sure. Since we had Wifi, we checked our emails and the weather. We knew it was supposed to get bad, and sure enough, the dopplar radar showed a bad storm headed right our way. It was moving pretty fast, and after lunch, I was being productive with my typing, so we decided that it would be much nicer to just sit tight and not get caught in that nasty storm. There were supposed to be very strong wind gusts, lightning and thunder (which we heard and saw just before getting to Ingles), and possibly hail- which we definitely didn't want to get caught in. Time went by and we watched the storm on the radar getting closer and closer. When it hit, we were SOO glad that we just took the time to just sit tight where we were. A really loud clash of thunder and "boom" the power in the entire store just went out! The rain was coming down like a monsoon outside and the thunder and lightning continued. We were SOOO glad that we weren't out in the storm, even if we had only gone about 25 miles so far today; it was still better than nothing, and once the storm passed, we would have some time to get some more. After the 2 hours and 45 minutes or so that we spent in the store between lunch, waiting for the storm, and waiting for the storm to pass, our jackets had dried out nicely and our pants were working on doing the same. So, the only thing that was soaked were our shoes. Right before the storm was over, the backup battery that the registers were running on ran out of juice and so the managers decided to lock up the store and make it officially closed. When that happened we went outside and sat next to our bikes under the overhang, just watching the rain. It is still amazing how things work now a days. Years ago, there was no electricity, but yet stores were open, now if the power goes out, the entire store has to close. Around 4 pm, the rain stopped and we headed off. It ended up not raining on us at all the entire rest of the day- I guess it's a good thing we waited out the storm. We had more hills on the way to the next town of Decatur. Unfortunately though, since we were heading West to get over to hwy 27, the wind wasn't helping us at all anymore. If we had somehow already made it to Decatur we would have made it to hwy 27 and would have flown the rest of the way to wherever we decided to stop today. If only we would have left a bit earlier today- and didn't have that flat tire-then we might have made it just a little further before the storm really got us. A couple miles before getting into Decatur, the wind started to get really bad. It made me think that I was back in South Dakota again!! With that wind blowing the way it was, and the fact that it was already after 5, we knew we wouldn't make it to the next town. A bit of a disappointment, but at the same time, we did get SOME miles done, just not as many as we would have liked. We found a little library right when we got into town, and since we knew we weren't going to make it much further, decided to just go there until it closed. I got quite a bit done that I wanted to get done and we were in a nice warm pace out of the wind. It as nice. Upon the library closing, we scouted out a place to pitch the tent for the night. Tonight, with the wind and possibility of snow- we needed an overhang (since our tent doors don't shut anymore and would leak) and maybe a wall to camp next to where we could get out of the wind. Well, our hopes were answered- right away we found an outside hallway with an overhang at the Baptist church in town. There wasn't anyone there at the time, but we thought that would be a pretty ideal place to be for tonight. Since it was only 7 and neither of us were hungry for any dinner or in the mood to cook for that matter, we decided to head over to Subway to sit inside for a while. That helped me too, because then I had a nice warm place to sit and type. We stayed there about 45 minutes before heading back to the church. Still no cars there, but at that point it didn't matter- we needed to set up somewhere and this was the perfect spot. Amazingly, as we were sitting in the tent, the tablet connected to an open Wifi network from who knows where, but we were at least able to check on the progress of our other cycling friends who are down where it's warm. A pretty crazy day though to say the least. Our miles only totaled 37 today, but we still made a little headway, so we were glad for that. The wind is supposed to be just as bad tomorrow, but will be from the W/ NW mostly- which will be even worse. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
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