DONE!

Just a quick hello, but I finished my trip on Thursday July 26th in Yorktown, VA. My mom met me at the end! IT was awesome! We traveled back to TN to get my car on Friday and we're headed on a roadtrip home. I will update this on Monday or whenever I get home with picturse of the last two weeks. I'm so happy I finished and happy I'm done! Thanks for all the positive messages! And check again in a couple days!

Day 45, 7/13/07, Lesterville, MO to a bit past Graniteville, MO, 26.4 miles

Skip's back hurt him so much yesterday he told me he wouldn't be riding today. I'm decided to do a short ride by myself, just so I can ride at least a little and then we'll SAG the rest. This is the most we'll end up skipping on the trip (except for the 400 miles of Kentucky that Skip has already ridden), just to stay on schedule. I only road 26 miles, i was going to do 40, but there were several dogs and a bridge was out and I couldn't figure a quick way around it and I figured I might as well take more of a rest day.

I hope his back heals, otherwise, you'll all be seeing more sooner than planned...

Day 44, 7-12-07, Summersville to Centerville, MO, 61.8 miles

This is the steepest hardest part of the Ozarks yet! Now I know why people say Missouri loves company! We passed a family from Australia who are cycling from LA to NY. They had two boys about 9 and 12. I was glad that I'm "cheating" and not carrying my stuff. It was pretty, but I'm glad it's done. We found a nice place to eat food in Centerville after the ride. They're cheeseburgers were amazing and they had sassy sayings all over the wall.

Day 43, 7-11-07, Marshfield, MO to Summersville, MO, 89.4 miles

4040 feet of climbing, which is a conservative number. The weather was nice, it wasn't too muggy and stayed in the 80s for the first time in a while. The trees are nice to have for shade. More steep hills, we SAGed to Alley Spring which is in the Ozark National Park Scenic Riverways (or whatever the Ozarks are technically called). It was beautiful.

Day 42, 7/10/07, Pennsboro, MO to Marshfield, MO, 61.3 miles

Up and Down! I guess we're entering the Ozark region. Every cyclist heading west we've spoken to has described the Ozarks as very hard and hilly, with the hills too steep, too long and too spaced out to use the downs to help you up the next hill. It was the toughest riding we've faced in over three weeks. Several dogs ran out at us, and scared the bejesus out of me, they run right at you and all I can think to do is sprint away.

Day 41, 7/9/07, Fort Scott, KS to Pennsboro, Missouri, 90.4 miles

WE're not in Kansas anymore! We got back on route right outside Pittsburg, KS and stayed on the route to Pennsboro, Missouri. The farther east into Missouri we got the steeper the "rolling" hills became. It is definitely changing from Western Kansas. The day was hot and muggy, but it's nice to enter a new state, slowly but surely, we're moving east!

Day 40, 7/8/07, Eureka, KS to Fort Scott, KS, 81.7 miles

We ventured off route today due to some flooding of some areas of the route and eastern KS in general. This detour definitely added more miles to the day, but we avoided much of the flooding. I did smell plenty of sour corn that had been soured due to flooding. We saw lots of turtles crossing the road today, I wanted to help them not get squished but Skip told me I'd get Salmonella if I touched them...

Day39, 7/7/07 Newton, KS to Eureka, KS 78.8 miles

More corn, very warm, glad we got another early start. I caught a nice sunrise this morning. More cornfields and in the cornfields are oil wells, it's very odd, I tried to take a picture of the wells next to the corn but it was bad lighting and the bugs were eating us alive. We met several cyclists today that were doing an assortment of tours. One happened to be from Penacook, NH, he had ridden from NH to VA and is basically doing the same route as us, but from East to West. I'm at a library in Eureka right now updating my blog, I'm not sure how long it'll be until we have internet access again. It's much harder since we hit Kansas to even find a place to stay at night and internet may be very hard to find in the next 2.5 to 3 weeks. But keep on checking and I'll update when possible. Hope everyone is having a great summer.

Day 38, Nickerson, KS to Newton, KS, 49 miles

Today was our "rest day". We were going to have a nice full rest day, but we didn't really like the idea of not riding, so instead we decided to change our next two full mileage days into three easier days, thereby using up the day we "gained". And having a floating rest day somewhere, probably in the Ozarks. We got almost out of Nickerson and saw a bunch of camels and a zebra and two mini donkeys. It was very strange, but very cool. We finished around lunch time, went food shopping, ate, parked, rested then went to a laundrymat-the usual "rest" day activities. It was a strange RV park, basically some lots owne by a Propane company.

Day 37, 7/5/07, Alexander, KS to Nickerson, KS 110.4 miles!

Wow, we added more miles today to combined some days! I was surprised I was able to make it, especially being on the "BRAT" diet. I knew I could do it as long as I could take in enough calories, since I was still staying away from most solid foods. We did it! It's the longest I've ridden and I'm happy. By the end of the day I was able to eat, whether I should have or not, but I was pretty hungry by the time we finished. IT was also the longest time in the saddle we've had. We had one flooded section we had to re-route around, but other than that it was a good day to ride 100+ miles. (Pictures to come)

Day 36, 7/4/07, Scott City, KS to Alexander, KS, 76 miles

We were only planning on going 56 miles due to places to stay, but we added on another 20 to finish up the map and we SAGed to LaCrosse, KS looking for a place to stay, we found a very nice place. Lucky we did, because the thunderstorms came rolling in. I ended up getting a little ill after riding and not able to have a Fourth of July dinner more than gatorade and crackers. Not too many pictures today, we saw more grain, corn and cows, a nice sunrise and some writing on the "hillside".

Day 35, 7/3/07, Eads, CO to Scott City, KANSAS! 105.5 miles

We got an early start today, which was good because the day turned out to be a scorcher. We crossed into Kansas today and right before that Skip got a flat and nearly sat on a snake! All the towns here-if you'd call some of them towns, have a grain elevator and usually not too much more. Once in a while, if you're lucky, they'll be a store or post office associated with a town. The truck traffic-usually hauling grain have been very polite and courteous, usually giving us the entire lane! We split up the day and road about 80 miles then had a couple hours to cool off and finished right around sunset.

Day 34 7/2/07 Boone, CO to Eads, CO, 92.85 miles

Yesterday we had a rest day and biked from Pueblo to Boone about 16 miles. Today we had a long day. Not steep or any notable climbs, but I'm not used to pedaling constantly with no chance to coast. I'm glad we did some of the miles yesterday so we didn't have 16 more to bike today. The wind was constant out of the south, so it gave us a cross wind. We went through a town called Sugar City, CO and a place called Haswell which is home to the smallest jail in the US. Grain and grain elevators are what is located in Eastern Colorado. There isn't much else here.

Day 32, 6/30/07, Canon City CO to Pueblo, CO about 43.5 miles

Not a bad easy half day ride. We had a 2% climb for about 12 miles and then it seemed to decline or roll until Pueblo, CO. In Pueblo, I was able to get a tune-up at Great Divide Hike and Bike and they did a really good job! I'm happy I got my bike fixed up. We said goodbye to the mountains today as we head to flatter terrain.

Day 31, 6/29/07 Fairplay, CO to Canon City, CO, 76 miles

This day was mostly DOWN. We're dropping out of the higher elevation. The wind definitely threw us off towards the end of the day, but I'm certainly glad we weren't headed the other direction for this day. Canon City and this area of Colorado has a lot of prisons.

We had a lovely sunset outside of Canon City and we ate at a really nice little Cafe there too.

Day 30, 6/28/07, Heeney Dam to Fairplay, CO. 67.35 miles

Today we climbed over 4400 feet! We climbed up to Silverthorne and Breckenride, Colorado and there was actually a bike path in between that ran for about 16.5 miles although part was closed due to cutting trees. We biked a slow and steady gradient up for about 56 miles to the highest continental divide crossing we have at 11,542 feet-Hoosier Pass. It's the highest point on the entire TransAmerica route. By the time we made it up it was dark and cool on the top and thunderstorms were rolling in. We went about 12 miles down to Fairplay CO where we stayed at the South Park Lodge and RV park!