Monday, August 1, 2011

Day 25

Monday, August 1

Miles today: 74

We got up and out of the house by 6:20- a new record for us! It was a cool 75 degrees and felt awesome as we started into the Ozarks. The mountains were tough! Extremely steep hills that were pretty short but they just kept coming, one after another. At first I was pumped and felt ready to take them on, but after hours of climbing up and flying down, it was hard to stay mentally focused. We took a break at Alley Spring, another blue spring that was not quite as beautiful as the one went to yesterday, but still gorgeous.


We hung out at the spring for a while because the water was extremely cold and it was like natural air conditioning to sit next to it! Ben had been having a problem with his front tire and he had to change he tube. It didn't really work because the tire has a bump in it- we have no idea how that happened.






We spent about 40 miles in the toughest hills and then it got less steep and a little more relaxing for be rest of the day. It was over 100 degrees so it was never really "relaxing" but better than the first half if the ride! Ben got a flat tire (even with the puncture-proof tires!) that we tried to patch but the patch didn't really hold. We were about 10 miles from town so we didn't feel like repairing it, and just kept pumping it up every few miles. We stopped at walmart to pick up some food, new cell phone charger (Ben's disappeared) and some new tubes. Then we went to subway for dinner and headed over to the city park, our home for the evening. We both took freezing cold showers to cool down and now we are exhausted from such a long day! The hills slowed us down so much and tired us out! I think we are out of the mountains now and are riding towards flat Kansas, so tomorrow's ride will be easier. And hopefully no as hot!

2 comments:

  1. Great pictures - I particularly liked the one showing the path to the spring. Your day sounded tough, sort of like death by a thousand paper cuts. Hopefully things will smooth out for you for a while.
    (P.S. The flight is booked!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I let the man servant play with me today until I got bored and made him bleed. He'll never learn.

    ReplyDelete