The snow started to fall around 11 or 12 last night and I'm pretty sure it kept coming down right til morning. Despite the snow, it didn't feel as cold as it could have! We definitely had the perfect place to set up our tent for the night in the little "hallway" outside. The wind was blocked and we were protected from any rain or snow that could fall. Somehow, since I wasn't feeling like I was completely frozen, I ended up being pretty productive. I typed for quite a while without falling asleep like I normally do! It was tough getting out of the sleeping bags this morning because once I did fall asleep last night, I was out like a light and actually felt very comfortable temperature wise, all night long. What a relief! The snow was coming down pretty good this morning when we woke up and we noticed right away that there was a tiny bit of accumulation on the ground. We noticed that my back tire was a little flat this morning. We weren't sure if the patch just didn't hold, or if I had hit something else and now had a slow leak. We decided to just put some air in it for now and see how it did. Once we were all packed, we headed over to the Piggly Wiggly to pick up some milk. We knew that there were tables inside because Joey had scoped it out last night so that we would know for this morning. There was an outlet right in the little "cafe" area where we could charge our phones while we enjoyed our breakfast. Afterwards, I washed out the bowls in the nice hot water in the bathroom and was happy to not have to do that outside. The wind was still against us, but not even close to as strong as it was last night by the time we had gotten to town. It sure would have been a miserable ride had we decided to keep going and try to make it to the next town that was about 22 miles away. I know for a fact that we wouldn't have made it before dark. With face masks and all on, we were pretty comfortable temperature wise. The only thing that had any inkling of being cold when we started were our feet, since our shoes were still a little damp from yesterday's ride in the rain. The first part of the ride was relatively flat. We pushed against the chilly wind and made some progress. At one point we turned to head to our new road, hwy 27 (that we will take all the way into OH). The road that we turned on to get there had quite a few big steep hills to start off. As we were approaching highway 27, there was a big hill in front of us. We drew closer and closer to it, but knew we wouldn't cross it yet as 27 paralleled it. The road eventually flattened out before crossing under the road we would be getting on. Another little hill to get up to the main road and we were off again. This time the wind didn't seem like it was quite as bad coming from more of an angle instead of the front. Highway 27 had some rollers, but for the most part was pretty flat as it ran through the valley between the big hills. We stopped for a quick check of my slow leaking tire and Joey put a little more air in it just to be sure. The first town we came to was called Spring City. We took a quick bathroom break at one of the gas stations and from there were going to head over to the grocery store and sit in the laundrymat nearby to eat. On the way there, we saw a Chinese buffet. That looked SO tempting, and so we went to see how much it was. We figured if it happened to be 5 bucks a person, we would do it. After all, it would serve as two meals, so it would be worth it. When we found out that the buffet was 5.90, we decided to just go for it anyway. Before he started to eat, Joey took my back tire off and changed it since the slow leak would end up being a pain later on. There was a nice spot with a couple chairs at the front of the restaurant where he could change it inside where it was warm. While he was working on that, he told me to just go ahead and start eating (since I'm such a slow eater). There was a nice older couple and a man and his two kids there in the restaurant. Somehow, I got talking to them and answered any questions they had about the trip. The man with the two children just couldn't believe that we rode all the way to Alaska on those bikes. I gave him one of our little make shift business cards so he could have our website. After talking with him for quite a while, I learned that he used to live in Fairbanks for a while and that the mother of his two kids is from Syracuse, NY!! It's so much fun talking to people because you just never know where they've been or if they have anything in common with you, and you are almost always surprised, after-all, it is a small world. The man and his children had finished their meal and were heading out the door before Joey had gotten done with the tire. Right after they left, the waitress came over to clean their table and said to me "he paid your bill." I couldn't believe it! I ran outside hoping that he hadn't left yet so that I could thank him. Luckily I caught him right before he got in his car. What an amazing surprise. The kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me. Little things that we will never forget. When Joey joined me, we enjoyed the rest of our meal and enjoyed talking with the older couple that was there. Such sweet people. After our bellies were all full, we headed back out into the cold and wind. We continued down 27, still riding alongside the same long hill. After a while, we passed through the cities of Rockwood and Harriman. There we stopped for a quick internet check at McDonld's and then continued on and stopped at Walmart for some groceries. From there, we had a bit of climbing in store for us. Highway 27 turned into the hills to go North West. At first it was a very gradual climb as we were getting into the hills. Eventually the gradual climb became steeper until it was to the point that we really felt like we were climbing. Although we've been looking at a thin layer of snow on the ground all day long, it was refreshing riding up into the hills. The snow on the trees and rock was beautiful. Every once in a while we'd ride by a little trickling stream with a few ice cycles hanging from the rocks here and there. Such a beautiful ride. Despite being tired and now riding more into a headwind, the scenery helped keep it enjoyable. We climbed for quite a few miles. At one point, we climbed over the top and saw a gas station. Since I had to pee, we stopped there for a quick break. As we were pulling up, a couple guys saw us and came outside. They started asking us where we were riding to. We told them and the one man said "Yeah.. and the next thing you're going to tell me is that you rode them things down here..." I had to laugh a little, but told him that we did, with a detour to Alaska and San Diego first. The men just couldn't believe that we had ridden almost 14, 000 miles on "those bikes." We talked with the two men and the one man's teenage son for quite a while. They even asked to get our pictures taken with us- we were like celebrities. They told us to email them the pictures and they would put them in the local newspaper, neat-o! After talking with them for a while, we learned that their son was headed off to their church in Wartburg (our destination for the night) for youth group. They said that we should stop there and we would most likely have a place to stay there and almost certainly at least be able to set up our tent there. With only about 15-20 minutes left of light now, we rode as fast as we could to get to town. The guys offered to put our bikes in the back of the truck and take us there, but we figured we could use the extra miles. It was about 5 miles or so to get to town, with a few more small hills in between. We found the First Baptist Church without too much of a problem and knew that we had the right place because we saw the boy's truck out front. The whole parking lot was full of cars. When we walked inside, we saw a huge gymnasium and peeked in the window where we saw the group of teens. We were welcomed into the youth group discussion and after some of the kids asked the usual questions, we heard a lot of "Wow's, etc." The teens thought that our trip was "so awesome" as they put it. We listened in on their discussion and afterwards relaxed for a bit while waiting for the adult bible study to finish up so that we could ask the pastor. Once they were done, the youth pastor introduced us to Bro. Danny and we found out that it would be fine to set up our tent. They told us a nice spot where we would be able to get out of the wind a little bit, which would be very helpful. When the pastor double checked with a couple of the other guys at the church, he came back and told us that we were welcome to stay in the gym tonight so we would be out of the cold!!! How lucky are we!?!? Not only that, but they recently had a lock in for the kids, so there were a few extra pews still in the gym that we could push together to make a little make shift bed. Brother Danny showed us around and said to help ourselves to any of the food that was in the kitchen, including the ice cream in the freezer! Oh and it get's better- there are shower's in the bathrooms we can use AND a place to do any laundry that we need done! We were so happy. All this because we happened to stop at that convenience store. So, we had a very comfortable night in store for us. We each took showers, had a bowl of ice cream (since we were inside warm where we could enjoy it!), and even had a few Doritos. While I typed, Joey walked to the gas station and bought some more milk for tomorrow morning. We did a little load of laundry, which was very helpful because we would have a dry towel to put away and clean warm gear for tomorrow. After 66.33 miles today, we would have a great nights sleep in out of the cold!!
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