A very tough day

We passed the monument below in Lock Springs, Missouri: The monument honors Jerry Litton, a congressman born in Lock Springs who died along with his family in a private plane crash. He had just won the senatorial primary, and was flying to the victory celebration. The saying on the monument seemed somewhat appropriate to our journey.

As I left my hotel room this morning, I saw the couple below down the hall.

The woman ran down the hall to me and asked if she could give me a hug. I agreed, not really having a clue what was going on. They just thought the trip we were doing was very cool, and had done some one week bike tours in Europe. The hug was a great way to start the day. As we progress east, it sounds more impressive when we say we've been biking from Los Angeles. I'm hoping for a hug and a kiss on the cheek a few hundred miles down the road.

Stupid people take pictures of stupid things while biking.

My friend Greg discussed "hotel bingo" on his blog a few days ago. We never know what we're going to get. The name doesn't tell the story. Our nicest hotel was a Super 8 - brand new with huge rooms and nice appointments. Some better names have been dumps. Today was supposed to be a Best Western, but I think they lost their credentials, and now are the "Best Inn". I turned on the shower and got sprayed directly in the face. I reached up to adjust the head, and the fixture pulled right out of the wall.

"Best Inn"? Try again. Actually, the folks running the tour do a great job scouting out hotels in some places that just don't have much to choose from. Every hotel has been clean and comfortable. The little surprises just add to the adventure.

Today was a very tough day. 88 miles of rolling hills, combined with high heat and humidity. I joke about some of the rides, but this tour is a serious physical and mental challenge. On the 108 mile ride into Topeka two days ago, less than half the group rode the full distance. We had our third crash yesterday. The rider sat out today, but hopes to ride part of the day tomorrow. He's not sure what happened, but it was at the end of the ride when we were all tired and just trying to get to the hotel. Unfortunately, the rider who crashed the third day of the tour is headed home. A bad scrape on his arm got infected. He went to a hospital, had it drained, and was taking antibiotics. The antibiotics messed up his digestive system, and he went to a hospital in St. Joseph yesterday with severe dehydration. Hopefully, he'll recuperate at home, then rejoin us down the road. I hope I'm not insulting anyone, but the crashes have been more mental lapses than anything else. It's hard to stay focused for this long.

I think the toughest part of this tour is the cumulative toll of riding so many miles. I've never ridden a bike nine straight days until now, and certainly never ridden such high mileage on consecutive days. Cyclists build "recovery days" into their training, giving the body time to rest and rebuild itself. The Tour de France is incredible not because of what an athlete does on one day, but because he does it repeatedly for over three weeks. Also, even the Tour de France has a few rest days in the schedule. We're not doing the Tour de France, but we're all pushing ourselves beyond anything we've done before.

Best of all, we're having a wonderful time doing it.