Springfield, Missouri

Last night for the first time on the trip, I actually got 8 hours of sleep. Any benefit that may have had to my health or cycling performance was quickly nullified by the huge breakfast I shoved down my throat. I just can't say no to good ol' country cookin... or any cooking for that matter. On a side night story that will disrupt the flow of what I was trying to accomplish here, last night a stray dog ate a couple peoples clothes that they had laid outside to dry. I was not one of the victims, but I'm sure in a week we can all laugh about the shredded jersey and the rider standing outside talking on her phone who did nothing to stop this fabric attack. Ok, back on track and on with the tie in to why my blog title today makes sense. So I was feeling slightly energized from getting three more hours of sleep than is normal, so I took it out hard this morning. I thought I could push the tempo and ride as a lone wolf, but mother nature had different ideas. Disclaimer about today's ride: it was the hardest ride I've ever done. The hills were more frequent than any other day and the headwind was a constant push in the face. It was like trying to cycle through a brick wall. And when the sun came out to play the second half of the day, the trifecta of pain was officially on. After 7 miles of riding solo first thing in the morning, my body told me to stop being stupid and to link up with other people. I caught up to one rider then we let two riders catch up with us. At the top of the next hill, we found two people who were waiting for a group to hop on with. The wind was that bad that no one wanted to ride alone. We rotated through quickly in the front spot after we got exhausted from a 2 mile pull. Moving fresh legs up to the front frequently helped us get through the day. Not to be sadistic, but there is great fun to be had in group suffering. When you're in a pack and you know everyone is in as much pain as you are, it makes the trip a little easier. It's just like in track when running 300 repeats. The team works together to take turns pacing and drafting and through suffering together, you get through the workout. Every hill we climbed, I rang my bell like a madman and screamed to get myself pumped and encourage others. A little insanity goes a long way on this trip. While on the topic of insanity,less cars tried to kill us today than yesterday, so atleast that was a plus. The open land in Missouri totally blows my mind. Beside the many cow pastures are acres upon acres of fields and trees. When we got closer to towns, I was thrilled to see a man with a John Deere tractor parked on his front lawn while he was building a motorcycle and blasting banjo music from his pickup truck. A mile down the road, two old men were sitting on the tailboard of a pickup in overalls. On roadsides instead of the typical dead squirrels and raccoons the northeast is accustomed to, there are armadillos. By the way, a special note on roadkill, from the drive in your car, you will never appreciate just how nasty it smells compared to slowly riding by thousands of miles of it on a bike in the heat. The pungent smells almost knock you off your bike. Missouri is a whole new world.

Hooray for sleeping in today. And by sleeping in I mean 730, but compared to the regular 430 wakeup, this was a treat. Bagels from panera were provided for us and I was awakene to a new kind of deliciousness. Not only were the crunchy outside and chewy insides baked to perfection, but the introduction of Hazelnut cream cheese rocked my world. It is the most delicious condiment to ever grace my tastebuds. For the past couple days, we have riden by so many churches advertising vacation bible school or VBS as it's called down here. Each one has a differed theme such as under the sea, rainforest, etc. The churches decorate themselves with the theme as way to get kids excited about Jesus. Even on our build day today, as we drove around we saw so many VBS advertisements. The build today was out of this world. We split up the group to go to three different build sites. The first group powerwashed a house and fence. They cased windows, caulked, and spackled and claimed to have the most fun. Group number two did some demo at a home with the family living there. They were preparing for a remodel and also reset a fence aroud the yard. My group built a shed. It took 11 people the better part of the workday but we went from a dance platform to a full shed just missing the front doors and shingles. It was a very productive day, and thankfully not as hot as the build day in St. Louis although we still lost considerable fluids. Some people got a little tired and wanted to rest or cut out early. But I was in the mindset that we were only here for one day so we should go nuts and bang as many nails as we could. When we got back and showered we ate burritos donated from Chipotle and watched a documentary on the St. Louis arch.