75 miles (962 total miles)
Google Earth File

This morning a cat was sitting outside Roger and Chucks room. I wonder if they need to do laundry?

We had a quick gorging on french toast the the restaraunt accross from our hotel (formerly owned by the hotel owner and now sold to family), and hit the road trying to beat the heat. Of course, a headwind for the bazillionth day in a row. This wind from the south needs to change.

A little tip.........heed the warning signs for speed breakers. They like a speed bump, but with more spine compressing goodness. And do not assume there is only one. Do not ask.

Our morning ride around Reelfoot lake was beautiful and peaceful; especially when you consider that the lake was created by a giant earthquake less than 200 years ago.

We stopped at the Reelfoot Lake park and offices. They had a neat reptile room and museum. I really love the local canoe design where you can row a canoe facing forward (to help watch for tree roots). The rest of the group was not impressed but I thought it was a neat little invention.

Katie and I got into some trouble with the law.

We had about 60 miles of straight flat highway today. In that entire time we did less than 100 feet of climbing. This was the most flat and straight section of road I have ever biked. The headwind was really steady though, so everyone huddled together. The miles slowly went by.

One levee we road on was 24 miles, perfectly straight and flat. We saw no humans for a long time, and no places to stop for supplies. It was a long slow 10-12 MPH grunt into the wind. The wind kept changing directions. Notice how everyone is staggered behind roger. Roger and I each led for 12 of this 24 mile stretch.

Katies headband was in her seat pouch. I pulled it out for her and apparantly it had molded. Ewww.

Fortunatly, after the 50+ grueling miles into the wind, we had some monster hills to drive us into the dirt. We crawled up each 12% grade at 2mph, then flew down the other side. Rinse and repeat.

After being entirely exhausted, out of supplies, and still miles from town, we missed our turn and stumbled upon the smallest little grociery store ever (not on the map, Edith WI). It was awesome. Laura approached very hesitantly....she thought it was a mirage. Once inside, she quickly found the worlds biggest ice-pops.

This area is so covered in Kudzu that is looks very surreal. It looks like another planet, or maybe like a jungle in a scary movie. The Kudzu covers everything, eventually taking down all of the trees. Valleys and hills are packed with the stuff, often only a few trees remain and are slowly being pulled to the earth.

We ran into another closed road. A local person told us we could sneak through, but be careful. The road was washed out and replaced with a 200 ft plummet to jagged rocks. She told us to approach slowly. Sure enough, the road just ended, with a gravel road around the deep ravine. We sent Chuck first, then Laura walked her bike.

The General (my trike) and I were going to jump the ravine, but I lost the hydrolic line to my right brake about an hour earlier and so we decided to take it easy. The General could have made it but the engine is also a bit tired.

Katie stopped to snack on some crackers I got her at the last stop. Water was running low so she was a bit upset to discover they were jalapeno flavored. To be fair, the word Jalapeno should have been a bit bigger. At state 14 heat stroke you can't expect a guy to read the fine print. Sorry Katie.

Sorry, not a lot of photos today I guess. Many didn't turn out, i had my camera on some goofy setting.

The day was a bit rough, and the hotel is not the nicest. Katie is a bit traumatized, hiding in the corner.

We ordered pizza and went straight to bed.

Some positive notes from the day.
We did 75 miles with a headwind and hills.
It was overcast, though still 95 and sticky.
We are alive.