This morning’s goal was to make it to Pittsburg. Pittsburg, KS. Jacob had a new velocity 40 spoke wheel built and shipped to the Tailwind bike shop. He was soooo excited. It could mean the end of the spoke problems.
About 35 miles in (not as easy as yesterday’s 35!) Jacob calls velocity and gets a tracking number for the wheel. It will NOT arrive today. Scheduled for delivery tomorrow. Looks like we get to sleep in Pittsburg and wait. Uggh.
At this point I was upset. Why not pay for second day shipping since now we have to pay for a hotel anyway? And it will cost us a day of riding. I tried not to blow up and show how upset I was, but I know Jacob could tell. I ate about a million banana chips at the rest stop and felt awful.
We put on happy faces and rolled on…only 30 more miles left today.
Missouri’s streets are letters instead of numbers. Jacob’s favorite was DD. I like MM (mmmgood). We also saw a sign for Miller, MO 8 miles in the wrong direction (sorry Jacob, no can do).
Jacob was hit in the helmet by a giant Men In Black type bug. It was the size of a golf ball. I saw the whole thing happen and he turned and said “what the eff WAS that?” His helmet passed the first test of the ride.
We also crossed a highway in front of a school bus that was going way faster than we thought. “FASTER, Robin!!!” I hear in the “bad Coyo voice” Jacob reserves for special emergency circumstances only. Like yelling at dogs to stay out of the road. I think that bus was doing 75 easy.
We left Missouri (misery) in the dust and arrived in Kansas. Seeya, wouldn’t wanna be ya, MO! I was feeling a bit light headed so we took a nap under a tree and ate some hard boiled eggs.
My belly started hurting after the nap and I barely made it to the super 8. I showered quickly and crashed in bed for 3 hours. Maybe this unexpected “rest day” is actually a blessing.

The humidity dropped overnight. Hallelujah! We woke up early to get on the road at 6:30a. We rolled west from Houston MO, mostly downhill, and had a lovely morning. We didn’t stop for rest, bathroom or anything until 35 miles in. That’s a record! What an easy 35 miles. We stopped when Jacob saw a sign that said “PIE”. 9a Jacob had a piece of peanut butter pie, I had some eggs and a clif bar. The food was great, but the smoky breakfast room was not. Cough cough…”Let’s get outa here, Jacob! We got 76 miles left today.”
As we rode down the lovely deserted road (no motorists for miles and miles), a white pickup truck blows by too close and the passenger flips us off out the window. Seriously, MO?!? I said “they must hate their lives or something”…Jacob said “their parents must have been run over by bicyclists”.
The miles after that ticked by quickly and easily.

At another rest stop I couldn’t find Jacob for a while. I assumed he was taking a nap somewhere around the gas station. Turns out he met Ken, an east bound solo cyclist going from Idaho to key west fl. Cooool. He has also biked from Alaska to Idaho. Super cooool.
Later on down the road, around mile 80, Jacob thought “man I could use a cold drink”. Then we see an SUV pull over ahead of us, take two ice cold bottles of water out his back seat cooler and flag us down. Gary lives in Kansas City and was helping his brother install a new roof on his home in Fair Grove MO over the weekend. He told us about a competitive cyclist who also grew up in Fair Grove and competed with the old Jelly Belly team. Nice, generous guy.
101 miles were very smooth, but I’ve found that no matter how far we go in a day, the last 10 miles are always hard.
We made it to Ash Grove and found the city park where cyclists are allowed to camp. We took elephant showers …really good water pressure…and started to cook dinner at the pavilion. Matt sent me a screen shot of Ash Grove MO pin pointed on a map of the whole US. We are almost halfway across!
Then a cop came by and gave us the key to the house next door. Seriously. We finished cooking inside and slept on cots in A/C. Yay Ash Grove! Goodnight!

When we checked in to the classy southern inn motel where we will spend two nights, the check in guy gave us one key. “Only one key?”, I asked. His response (Indian dude with a british accent): “Yes, you’re in Houston, MO, there’s no where to go anyway”
Jacob and I were both awake by 6a…for no good reason. Our bodies did not get the memo…it’s our rest day!
I ate breakfast outside at a picnic table and did some reading.
Then I loaded up our smelly laundry and headed for the laundromat down the street behind Walmart.
After laundry I camped out at McDonalds, had a second breakfast, talked to mom on the phone, read, wrote and relaxed. An older gentleman asked if he could have 1) the spare chair from my table and 2) my egg McMuffin. I said yes and NO way!
Meanwhile Jacob was back at the room doing bike stuff. I came back to a bike shop-smelling room at naptime…doh. We aired out the room and both took glorious naps.

Went to pizza hut for dinner. The teenage kid waiter told Jacob he wasn’t welcome in his “John Deere” shirt. We did not get the joke. He said “my father’s a logger” and what I should have said is “my father’s a pilsner!” (HA, joke YOU won’t get that’s just not funny either! “Jerk store, I’m going with jerk store!”…Seinfeld, anyone?)
I chowed down on salad and pizza. We calculated that I eat more calories than Jacob does per day. A ton more if you don’t count the soda he consumes.
Jacob went to Walmart for one last supply trip and I rushed back to the room to catch the start of the Nats game since it was on espn.  The TV had the weirdest channels we’ve ever seen. Espn was 106-1. NASCAR was on. “Nooooooo! I hate Missouri!” I composed myself and turned the channel to 94-1 (espn2). Phhhhew, there were my boys!

After a while Jacob returned and joined me in baseball watching. In the 5th inning or so the score was Mets 5, Nats 2. “Well, it doesn’t look like the nats are gonna do it tonight”. I looked at him with steely eyes and said aggressively “WHAT is YOUR problem?”
Of course he ate his words, Nats came back for a “third out shirt out” save by Soriano. Ha! I fell asleep happy.

Some tidbits from our first 1000 miles:

Jacob had: 1 tick, 2 “bee in the jersey” scares resulting in one sting, 1 huge moth in jersey, one million nats attacking his face.

Touring bike milestones:
The first day I could barely manage to get on and off the beast due to weight and balance issues.
First two days I had to tap the brakes going downhill beginning around 25mph because it started feeling “squirrelly”.
It was day 3 before I felt comfortable reaching down for and drinking from water bottles while actually riding. (took me 3 whole days whaaaat?)
Day 4 I had our top speed clocked at 40.5mph (don’t tell mom!)
Day 5 I noticed every time I cough or clear my throat my quads would “shiver” and talk to me.
Day 7 my bike fell on my leg and cut me up a bit. Grrrr I’ll show you who’s boss, bike!
Day 10 Jacob said “I love how you are manhandling that bike now!”
Day 13 I finally felt comfortable to listen to music (low volume) while riding.

When people ask where we stayed last night (any “last night”), we look at each other with blank stares for a few seconds, hmmmm think about it, and generally come up with different answers… days blend together into one big biking soup. Was last night the church or the campsite? Doesn’t matter…

Dogs are passionate about bike tires. They hate and/or love them… Lots of barking and chasing.

We went slowly up the VA and eastern KY mountains. Sometimes so slowly that I would see a fuzzy caterpillar crawling across the road in front of me and not be entirely sure which way to go around it…sometimes the caterpillar was faster than me. And sometimes, I swear, that caterpillar turned into the stoner caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland and began taunting me. “You are not Absolem. I am Absolem. Whoooo are yooou?”

Lacrosse ball rolling is magic for my upper back and traps. I tense up going down mountains and need to brake a lot which causes  rock hard knots. Thank you Dr. Kempe for teaching me the healing powers of the lax ball!

We took route 11 a long way in VA. Days and days. Route 11 is also Lee hwy. I could have biked from my parents’ house, took one right turn on Lee Hwy and gone all the way to KY!

In KY there’s no way around being covered in a layer of coal dust from morning to night.

Jacob doesn’t know how strong he is. His body will do more than his mind thinks it can. I, on the other hand, think I’m stronger than I am (I’m superwoman, right? Riiiiight, egomaniac!). We make a good team and keep each other in check.

1000 down, just a few more to go!
Xoxo Robin.

We had a pleasant night sleeping in the city park. Jacob made friends with two little gray kitties… then chased them away from our campsite since I’m allergic to cats.

In the morning we hit the rest rooms at the 21 diner and had breakfast there. They had a curse word jar (each word was $1), so we kept our conversation clean this morning.
Rolled out around 7a.
Instead of the usual VA/KY roadkill (skunk, raccoon, deer), we now began to run into dead armadillos. “Close your nose!”, Jacob screams. Much worse than skunk smell.
We made it 12 miles at a great pace when Jacob spied a place to rest. “Really? I don’t need a rest yet!” Good thing we stopped because he needed to change a spoke. He hadn’t noticed it since we are now riding with headphones. Will have to pay attention to that!
A lady at the grocery store told us her in-laws host cyclists and to be careful on these roads because “people in MO don’t understand cycling”. Duh, we found that out yesterday in labor day weekend traffic!
The rest of the day was spent climbing the Ozark Mountains.  They are not nearly as steep or long as the VA monsters, but it was one million degrees outside. We both thank our lucky stars we went though VA in a relatively chilly, overcast spell. Not sure I would have made it in the heat and humidity.

At the peak heat hour, 2p, we stopped at a rafting and convenience store in Alley Spring for A/C and cold beverages. We met Eric and his family (owners of the store) and chatted for a while. He is a super cute 27yo who is training for his first full marathon and a triathlon. Jacob suggested I take him with us…move him back to Arlington!
Eric told us we had one more tough hill to Somerville before the terrain leveled out. He was right. The last 37 miles was steady rolling, but mostly climbing. I took it really slow and tried to be as efficient as possible. I told Jacob that I wanted to spend the least amount of energy necessary to make it to our hotel. I have the computer on my bike so I know exactly how many miles we have left. Jacob does not. When he saw the “Houston 10 mile” sign I hear “What?!? Aaarrrgghhh I thought we were so much closer! Gaaah!”
We survived and rolled in to Houston MO at dusk.

We showered (best shower yet!) and went to the Cozumel Restaurant across the street. They serve real margaritas and beer! Score one for MO!
Jacob was intoxicated after 2 margaritas and a muscle relaxer. We stopped at Walmart on the way back to restock our food bag, he sang in the aisles and told the check out lady “Rachel, that’s a lovely name, my mom always told me to find a nice girl named Rachel”. At the hotel we both crashed immediately. Rest day tomorrow!
Church sign today: “Choosy moms choose Jesus”.

Woke up at 5:15 in Popeye town. In order to make our rest day hotel in 2 biking days, I knew we needed to get on the road early, no dilly-dallying today. Jacob was ready really quickly!

We decided to eat breakfast at Hardees since we needed to use the restroom facilities there (FOE had been closed since 1a).

We crossed the mighty Mississippi river early in the morning. “MO miles, no MO problems” was our supposed M.O. of the day. Jinx…this was a big time jinx.
There was a road closure at a bridge. We decided that there was just no way of getting around it without our bikes drowning in mud and water. So we backtracked and took a gravel road for about a three mile detour loop. I fell, some blood, definitely sweat, but no tears…I hate gravel!

We made it back to the 76 trail and paved roads. When we got to some hills, Jacob’s bike wouldn’t shift correctly. We stopped multiple times for him to tweak it. Finally he discovered that the skewer was installed incorrectly by the guy at the bike shop the previous day. Lots of cuss words happened. He jimmied it and we climbed to the next bike shop in Farmington MO where he fixed it for real.
We stopped at McDonalds around 5p. We were still 30 miles from our desired end point… planned to camp at the city park in Centerville MO (free for cyclists). We considered going only 15 miles instead and hitting up the Black River Motel. Jacob called to see if they had a room available and to check rates for non smoking, two beds. When he hung up the phone Jacob imitated the motel guy’s gruff, scruffy, low and loud voice: “non smoking is still smoking….they do what they want here…$55…but if you use a card it’s $5 more…hmmmph”. Then, in a fet-up-Jacob unusually high voice “I’d rather camp at a city park!!! I’d be afraid of that dude”. This made me laugh hysterically…
So we got to biking. 20 really fast down-mountain miles. We apparently had been climbing UP all day and this was the reward.
10 miles up and down to beat the sun to Centerville.
Most motorists so far on this journey have been polite and courteous. Not so on this road. It was the beginning of labor day weekend, Friday evening, and we were between the motorists (with their big trucks, RVs, trailers with boats and ATVs etc) and their holiday destination of campsites. One lady screamed nastily at me “You need to find a new road!” (this is a documented bike route). When she passed Jacob she honked and tried to run him off the road. Jacob may have yelled something with the words “fat” and “cow” in it. I can’t be sure exactly.
We just barely beat the sun to Centerville. David Robinson, who we met at the market, showed us where to camp. The admiral’s brother (he wasn’t really THAT David Robinson but I thought it was funny!) gave us a few beers and we set up the tent to keep mosquitoes and dew off us.
We ate cans of ravioli and a can of vegetables for dinner. One biking day left to a REST day. I think I can!

Ted and Colleen invited us to their campsite for breakfast at 0600. Yes, please! They made a gigantic pot of the most wonderful oatmeal with raisins and walnuts and served yummy strong coffee. Unfortunately, Jacob woke up with a belly ache so he couldn’t appreciate it fully.
Ted and Colleen are also cyclists. They literally lived on their bikes for two whole years and traveled all over the US. We heard some great stories. One was about a clean cut English cyclist they found on the side of the road in the rockies who had miscalculated the time it would take to get to a hotel…so he had spent the night in the woods with little water and no food…and no camping supplies…however “not a hair was out of place” and he was dressed in a “crisp white button-down and slacks”, crazy English! We shared some of our own stories too. They sent us off with a new package of granola bars and wished us luck.
Later that morning we passed the Lake of Egypt and saw signs to Cairo. Cairo, IL.
Jacob had major mechanical issues today. The skewer of his real wheel actually broke completely off. He couldn’t ride. So I rode 14 miles to Carbondale (an SIU campus is there) and found the closest bike shop. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to ride the 14 back to him with the new skewer. Thank goodness, when I arrived at the bike shop I got a call from Jacob. He found a ride in to town. Phhhhhew!
He was wearing his Brooklyn  American flag Jersey. One lady in a mini van stopped to ask him (as he was walking his bike, obviously something was wrong) if he was from Brooklyn. He said “no”, she said “well I am!”, and kept driving. A few minutes later a fellow cyclist stopped in her car with a bike rack and drove him to meet me at The Bike Surgeon.
We took a direct route to Chester, IL…home of Popeye. We went through Jacob County.

This was the hottest part of any day yet. The kind where you see water on the road on the horizon. We saw a building in the distance that Jacob took for a mirage. It was actually there and had a working soda machine! Sweet oasis.
In Chester we stayed in a bike shack next to and run by a Fraternal Order of Eagles club. Jacob called the shower a “prison shower”. When he was showing I iced my legs…heaven!
The small room where we slept had 9 bunks crammed together. Poor Jacob could not fit properly in them. No surprise, I fit just fine!

We ate dinner at the FOE club. Jacob played some slot machines and I watched USC football (go gamecocks!) and ate a ginormous brownie decadence sundae for dessert. Yum.
Jacob thinks there should be antifreeze/coolant for blood. Ours boiled a bit today.

Last night after dinner as I relaxed, stretched and planned for the next day, Jacob called for my attention. “Earplugs out”. He came out of the closet to me as bisexual and told me he was going to come out on social media too. He had been quiet the past two days so I knew something was up… We talked for a while and I tried to give him support, love, and a kind ear. I hope I can continue to be a support for him thought his journey and our adventure.

So, on to day 13. Jacob ate leftover Stromboli for breakfast and I made the usual oatmeal, protein powder and coffee.
I messed up directions again today. And this time I added a crrrrazy steep hill for us. My bad. You would think if there was a sign that says Tower Rock (left turn arrow), that would mean it’s Tower Rock Road, right? Nope. We got a great view of the Ohio river a little too soon. And we had a broken spoke and an axle fix on top of that.

Kept truckin.
We crossed the Ohio river on a ferry.

The worker whose job it is to chain up the boat could be on Letterman for his cool human trick of lassoing the chains over and back about 15 times in 5 sec.
Got to eddyville for a nice rest stop. I was charged $24 for our drinks and snacks but didn’t realize the error until we were almost ready to leave. The cashier mistakenly charged me for a $18 bottle of liquor. Hey, at least they serve alcohol in this state! Got my money back.
We decided that it was imperative to get to a bike shop. Luckily Carbondale il is on the routetomorrow.
We went thru multiple construction zones with new asphalt. It’s nice and smooth, but feels like sludge and reeeeeally magnifies the heat.
We camped at Ferne Clyffe State Park and met Ted and Colleen who are camping in an RV. We didn’t get to buy any extra supplies for dinner, but we still had a nice feast from or food bag. Zatarans Mexican rice, protein powder, avocado and salsa. I slept under the stars again. Mosquitoes were out so I put on all of my long sleeve apparel, plus my bandana and my sleeping mask. Only skin showing was my cheeks and mouth. Sweat a little but no bites!

The question of the day today was: “should we stay for free at a church in Marion, KY….or camp 12 miles further (per the itinerary.and for $30) at Cave-in-rock?”
Choose the former!
The scenery from Hodgenville KY to Marion KY looked eerily similar to highway 11 in VA. Corn fields, rolling hills, small farm towns.
It was the land of hot-rod old cars though. My favorite was a bright green old mustang convertible. My aunt Joey had a green convertible named “green bean”…or string bean?… I loved riding in it and when I was little I would tell her to “Go, Jo, Go!”. The things I think about on the road….I digress…
Some farms had Perdue No Admittance signs. Those farms had particularly song aromas. I asked Jacob if that was the stench of slaughter. He said “no, that’s chicken poo”. Ok.

We ate lunch at a nice air conditioned cafe called Jeri’s.
As we climbed a pretty steep hill after lunch, we noticed a slow moving something at the top. I had no idea what it was. Ahhhh, it was a tandem recumbent bicycle. Cooool. That would never work for the R&J duo, or really R and anyone. I would go nuts!
It got really hot 12 miles outside of Marion. Good thing we were stopping early, because I was getting overheated. It felt like we were in a steam room (a really hot one like they have in Iceland!) AND we were blow-drying our hair. There was a significant head wind, of course, that was hot like a blow dryer!
We arrived at the Marion United Methodist Church and met pastor Wayne around 4:30. He was super welcoming and he told us there was a slight fee to stay there… Jacob assumed we were about to get baptized…haha… The fee was getting our pics taken and signing the guestbook. We read about other cyclists who have stayed at the church recently (including the cute one from a few days prior!!), some who we already met on the road and some who we may meet in the road soon.

We stayed in the “kids hall” so the water fountain was miniature. Jacob made a short joke about me…meanwhile there were no less than three other ladies within ear shot who were all shorter than me. Oops!
We decided to hit the town for an Italian dinner. This restaurant had a picture of Guy Fieri on the wall, so it has to be good, right? Local organic produce. Yummy home-made everything. A great surprise for small town IL.
Back at the church I iced my knees and did lacrosse ball rolling for my upper back.
Today we saw the best street name yet: “Fishtrap Derbymine Rd”. We agreed that it sounds like a pair of rock bands who would open for the Stones so we both started speaking in british accents and pretended to be the announcers of the show.

We biked into a new time zone today!  We’re biking back in time.

Day 11 brought some struggles.
We slept at the LaRue County Park which was super fun actually!
However, dogs barked pretty much all night. Good thing I packed ear plugs!
Woke up around 6 a little  dewy…slept on a tarp but the top of the sleeping bag did still get wet. Doh.
I got breakfast going while Jacob finished true-ing the wheel from the previous night. Then I hear “$#@&$!!” It broke again! Arrgh.
So he started over, meanwhile I ate, packed, and started pumping my tires. What did I find? “Oh look at that, Jacob, my rear tire is flat! Hahaha”. “@&$##&!!!”
So we got a late start. 8:30a
20 miles in, same tire of mine went flat again. When we were fixing it, Jacob asked if I had a tick…since I’d been clearing my throat a lot. Ummmm, no, and I got slightly (a LOT) offended. He apologized and we rode on.
Another 5 miles and I got another flat. Instead of patching it this time I got a new tube. This time it held.
We went over a few rivers today. We chanted “Down by the river I took a little walk!!” (know that old swimming cheer?), and “I live in a van down by the river!!!” (Chris Farley?)

We snacked on chili straight from the cans.
KY does not pay for street signs or cell phone towers. However, Jacob says the governor’s brother must own a rumble strip company because they are everywhere! All different kind too. All annoying to cyclists.
We raced the sun to our lodging for the night. 101 miles logged.Saw a nice sunset on the bike and got to sleep at the Utica volunteer fire department building. It was so cool! Shower, kitchen, laundry. The trifecta! We were in heaven.

Church sign of the day was quite a propos: “Fire Safety Tip: stop, drop and roll will not work in Hell”.
Slept in our sleeping bags on top of mattresses. Inside and dry.