Sunday, July 29

Today was a tough challenge.  While we made it to our planned overnight, we had to do it by riding 82 miles and not 67.  To add some misery to our tired legs, the last 10 miles had two climbs which closely rivaled Big A Hill earlier in the day.  It was a good thing that the state park that we are camping for the night is less than a mile from the town of 184 as I was exhausted and in significant calorie deficit.
While the ride was challenging, it was certainly beautiful.  This area is heavily wooded, so much so that at times we had the fortune of riding in the shade which helped shelter us from the warm sun.  Unfortunately, there was no hiding from the humidity.  Perhaps the two biggest surprises today were the number of churches we saw.  It is almost like Wisconsin's bar on every street corner.  Many of the churches were literally in the middle of nowhere.  Unfortunately with all of this religion, the area practically shuts down on Sunday.  This did not help our hydration and food needs.
We did encounter a few things we expected - chasing dogs and a feeling that you are in hillbilly country.   On at least two occasions were we chased by dogs where the owner simply watch and did nothing.  Apart from run down homes and the dotting of the countryside with broken down trailers, the other give-a-way that the people are different her was when we stopped for lunch and could barely understand the English being spoken at the tables nearby.  On a good note, we've not heard any banjos.
All of these experiences almost didn't happen today.  While there were numerous issues that we needed to work out because of Kyle's planning, the biggest one was bringing along a pair of mismatched bicycling shoes which had competing pedal clip systems.  In short, one shoe meshed with his pedals, the other did not.  This issue could have suspended the ride today. Fortunately, I had replaced my pedals a few weeks earlier with pedals that allow for pedaling with standard shoes as well as with a clipped pedaled system.  By exchanging one of my pedals with his, we created the opportunity for Kyle to pedal with his mismatched shoe on the platform side of the pedal.  While this is not idea, it allow him to pedal today without issue.  Hopefully we can find a more perfect solution at a pass through town with a bike shop later this week. That's it for now.   We're both tired nd we've been told that we ain't seen nothing yet.  We will see that early in the ride tomorrow.

Dick