Stuff Happens

2 Day update as we had Internet problems last night.

Ste. Genevieve - Cape Girardeau

So you wonder what each day starts like before we put in the miles on the road.........well glad you wanted to know......our normal riding day starts with David getting up a 1/2 hour earlier than Rex and I.  Rex calls it David's "fiddle farting time" but from my view it seems like he just needs little more time to make sure his hair is fixed up, and his lotion goes on just right, eye shadow in place.......reminds me of Loni getting ready in the morning.  Anyway, we finally get to breakfast, which may be the best meal of the day.  Each place we have stayed has a "breakfast" with a nice selection of fruit, toast, cereal, eggs, coffee, pastries, etc.  All in all we are in good shape for the first couple of hours of the trip.  Our ride was to take us to Cape Girardeau, which is a place that David had demanded we visit as it was where his idol Rush was born and raised.  Due to reasons beyond our control, and which are reviewed below, we did not get by the old homestead.  David indicated he and Karen will return in the future.  The day started out great and we made good time leaving Ste. Genevieve.  Riding was fine with the weather cooperating.  Not too warm and the humidity not too high.  In fact everything was going great for most of the day.  Hills not too long, and the downhills nice and long.  Shaping up to be the best ride of the trip................so as we have to head down one stretch of road ..........awful lot of trucks..........more trucks........more trucks........turns out there is a Proctor and Gambol Distribution Center out in the middle of no where.........go figure.......so we make it off the truck route and head towards the last 11 miles into Cape Girardeau. Some nice downhills with David taking the lead, and me close on his tail.  We pull up for a second and no Rex.........we wait........we wait........we say he can't have missed the turn.........we wait.......finally some guys in a truck yell ...."your friend has a flat.......well David and I decide that he should continue on towards town so he can get cleaned up early and get over to Rush's........or get to the bike shop and have his gear switching looked at as it has been acting up on the hill climbing........which is a problem when you are going up as many hills as we have been going up.  I head back to Rex and we start to fix the flat...in the 90 + degree heat......turns out the day has gotten hotter.........nothing more fun than changing a tire at 3:30 PM in the afternoon.  Funny how the flats happen in the hotter part of the day.  Anyway, takes us a little more time than we had hoped, but we did get if fixed and we were off to catch up with David.  We caught up with David at the bike shop where they had fixed his gear switching, and David had struck up a conversation with the shop and we had a route figured out for the next day.  Stuff happens, you deal with it, and good things come about.  That night we stayed at another Holiday Inn Express and found the best shower head of the trip to date.  No water shortage in this down.  A great place.  Figured out they sensor the Internet, hence we could not get on the net last night.  Something to do with being a politically correct town.  Ha.

Cape Girardeu - Charleston

In planning ahead we knew today would be a relatively short leg.  Our limits are about 60 - 70 miles and we have tried to date to not go much more than that.  We saw a problem coming up and needed to make sure we did not leave ourselves with too long a trip to get to beer.......oh, I mean a hotel.  The trip out of town included the usual early morning traffic of trucks and people going to work.  The bike shop people had been right on and we got out of town without incident.  Seemed like it would be a good ride. Basically flat at the beginning, with lots of corn and beans.  We also saw the first of the corn being harvested.  Wow those John Deere machines do a lot of work in a short period.  Up and down, up and down the hills for most of the morning.  As we headed into the early afternoon, we came upon the flat lands and made great time.  The farm land appears very fertile and we saw many large acreages planted in ..........of course corn and soy beans.  Saw some rice for the first time which was interesting.  We arrived in Charleston, Mo.  on the early side so Rex and I took a little walk to scout out a dinner place, and of course to find the beer.  Our little walk in the sun turned into a long walk in the sun as the first market we went to was dry.  Rex warned me this might start to happen as we proceeded into the south a bit more.  Life is tough when you have to walk a mile for a beer.  Anyway..........David was overjoyed with our dinning choice this evening.......Big M's Steakhouse.........we had a window seat and the menu was outstanding.  David had his normal.

Anyway we are in a deep session of planning our next leg and are headed towards the ferry to Kentucky.

And now for the facts covering the last two (2) days.............here is David..........

Monday day 13:
Miles this day:  70.5
Avg. mph 10.4
Total miles:  855.7
Daily avg:  65.8
     Many hills, one after the other.  Shifting was a problem for me.  Need bike work.
Tuesday day 14:
Miles this day:  46.6
Avg. mph:  10.
Total miles:  902.3
Daily avg:  64.45
     Some more steep hills.  I had to push up a couple.
We had some technical issues on Monday in Cape Girardeau.  Rex got a flat approaching town.  Bill went back to help.  I went on to town to Cycle Werks and got my shifting corrected.  Sure did help today.