Day 32 – From Chillicothe, Missouri to Kirksville, Missouri – 81 miles

Thanks for all the comments from everyone that I got to read today – it is always great to hear from you all and know that you are following along! This is quite the journey and I love hearing from home, friends, and family… now onto today…

What happened to our weather angel? As we started out today on our ride, we had some small raindrops that accompanied us. We heard thunder in the distance and I saw lightening four times – granted, the lightening looked far away but I learned later that lightening can strike up to 25 miles (or more) away – it could have been closer than 25 miles… thus our meteorologist, Greg, was in the sag wagon avoiding the danger… while I was enjoying myself . . . naivety is bliss! The rain drops were very nice since it was quite humid today… we guessed it was 100% but I am not sure how accurate we are. I didn’t get any photos today since my camera was nicely packed in a plastic bag to avoid any water. I still think our weather angel is with us and was just keeping us nice and cool today with a little rain drops.

We had an eventful day – I rode with John, Amy, and Sue again – we ride very similar speeds so it is easy to stay riding together. The road today involved many ups and downs… it was like a rollercoaster ride and pretty fun! We climbed over 4000 feet but only gained a total of 200 feet in elevation… just up and down and up and down and up and down. It was like doing interval training all day… great workout and exhausting! We saw much evidence of the flooding – one of the roads we were on looked like it had been flooded, another road was close to being completely covered in water, and many fields were like mini lakes. It should be interesting to see the Mississippi tomorrow – more rain is expected – I hear even hail --- aww, well… it makes it a fun adventure!!

The biggest thing that happened today was that our second sag stop wasn’t there – it was suppose to be at mile 51 but at mile 55 we all stopped and decided to ride a few more miles and then call the sag van. Great idea but neither of the sag vans had cell phone reception so that didn’t work. About mile 65 or so, the sag wagon came by and said that we had beat them to the second sag stop so they didn’t have one… everyone had gotten there before they did – not sure how that happened but I was glad to hear that no one was hurt… since I thought that might be way the sag wasn’t there. Michelle and Christine, our tour leaders, passed by later with PB&J sandwiches they made and gave to us through the car window – how nice! It was a great treat and felt extra special that they took the effort to make them for us.

We got in today before 1pm and I had time to read and completely clean my bike and use the nice “Bike Lust” purchased for me by Sister Denise (thank you!) to polish and buff my bike – it looks awesome!!! J I am getting better at cleaning my bike each time. There isn’t much in Kirksville so the rest of the afternoon and evening was just spent hanging out and chatting with everyone. This is the life I tell ya! I love it ;)