4 weeks on the road

Nastyhand. Note the watch tan and the greasy hands. This computer is ridonkulously slow with the photo uploads, so I'll have to post the rest up later. Sorryyyyyyyyy.

It's ridiculous how much stuff I forget to put into these posts. I think up stuff while I'm riding then forget about all of it as soon as we stop.:::





COLLEEN LEFT US. Dunno if I ever mentioned this, but she was the mom of our group, but in a good way. She took care of us, but didn't bitch us out when we did stupid things. The whole trip, she's been the caboose, leaving us each morning with a friendly "I'll see you assholes in Kansas." But she left us in Illinois due to unexplainably painful fatigue on some of the monster hills before Carbondale.





Her name's Helen, and I'm not forgetting again. She got chased by 15 dogs today!!! (she counted) Here's their blog thingy:
biketransam.wordpress.com. They've been leaving earlier than us, but taking longer breaks, so we catch up halfway through the day. Today we caught em early after Becca broke a spoke. Good news: I was able to straighten out the wheel enough to get her going again. Bad news: next bike shop is halfway through Kansas.





Just read the introduction and started On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I don't think I coulda found a more perfect book to read on this trip.





Ozarks are SWEEEEET. Easy grades, long hills=fastnasty. Sure, there are some short steep ones that make you want to die, but overall, they are a lot faster and more fun to ride. I don't have to curse under my breath as we're cranking up a 2 mile hill. The drivers seem pretty friendly- lots of waves, few middle fingers. We've had trash thrown at us in the past two states, which never occurred in VA or KY.


Songs stuck in my head cuz I cant get em out cuz I don't have no music:

1. that Nutcracker song


2. Piano Man by Billy Joel (Walker picked up a harmonica from a little General store, and it was all over)


3. Your time is gonna come, Led Zep

I was hoping that if I had overeacted about my iPod, it would all be okay. I was guessing the world would right itself and my iPod wouldbe healthy after a couple days of rest and evaporation. But nay. It appears to be officially deceased. Maybe I'll scatter it's ashes in the Pacific.

We ran into a couple other biking parties:

• Dad and 12 year old son. Both on mountain bikes. Dad doesn't wear a helmet. Kid is ridiculously fast up the hills- in part due to the fact that he's not carrying a load, and also because he's completely nuts. We only rode with them for a little while. Supposedly they're doing 100+ miles a day, which is completely sick. Dad says they're going to hike the AT over summer break (most people take 6 months). I get the feeling junior is going to grow up a bit disfunctional.
• Halley and Colin, two just graduated college graduates from college. Haven't spoken with them much, but they seem cool. I might be riding with them for the Western portion of le trip. They're ahead of us now. I said I'd call em, but haven't. I suck at life.

I've been trying to design some foldable shelving in my head, for implementation in le apartment when I get back, but so far have been unsuccessful. I have a real hard time concentrating on anything for a any length of time. I spend a ridiculous amount of time thinking about the fact that I can't think about anything.

Lost my little military can opener. Crap.

Had my first soda of the trip. Some nice guy offered it to us when we stopped to jump in a river. Grape soda. Can't turn down free stuff.

We broke 1500 miles a couple days ago. This is good.

I gotta figure out how we're doing for schedule. I might have to duck out before Colorado. This is bad.

I, along with many other people, are getting tired of these dagum broad-leafed trees. I WANT TO SEE DEAD STUFF OR MOUNTAINS OR SOMETHING. Sure, the landscape is a little different, but I'm really excited to see the Rockies rising out of the plains, and the desert landscape on the other side.

We saw a dead armadillo. Cracked shell, guts everywhere.

Ticks. I guess I get them when we stop and run around in the grass or something, but I've found 6 or 7 crawling on me so far. One latched onto my no-no area last night. He dead.