Friday 1 July 2011

Day 29: Mercury rising

Day 29

Houston to Marshfield 67miles

Another early start, and another hot day looked in store. I was hoping that today wouldnt be quite so tough as yesterday. The route (on the map at least) did look a bit flatter today, without the steep climbs.

And actually it was much more pleasant riding today. The sun was blazing down, but with less slow climbs there was a usually a bit of a breeze to cool me down a little (although my t-shirt was still drenched in sweat within 45mins!) Was also some nice views from the high prairie that I was cycling over.

Early on saw a sign which almost seems to be teasing me
Sadly I was heading for Hartville

Sadly, success for me is still around 2,800miles away!

Met a few more Eastbounders today. The first one was a guy from California, and then later I met a couple more guys, including a Brit! As ever, we all exchanged route tips and places to stay. One very useful thing they told me was that a detour a bit further on the route that I could ignore and just walk my bike over the bridges that were being repaired.

Stopped for lunch in Hartville just before 40miles. Whilst in Subway, managed to get some wifi and checked my emails. Also managed to catch up on Wimbledon. Great Britain's Andy Murray did very well in the winning the first set. Sadly by the time I had finished lunch, Scotland's Andy Murray was well on his way to inevitable capitulation!

Today's riding was definitely much nicer than yesterday, but that sun was unrelenting. Originally my plan for the next 2 days was to do around 85miles today, which would give me a shot of getting to Kansas tomorrow by doing a 100mile day. However, I decided in this heat that simply wasnt a sensible, or safe, thing to do. There's no point getting to Kansas a day early if I end up needing to be connected to a drip due to dehydration! So decided to split the miles up into 3 days of around 60miles each.

Soon got the road signs telling me that the road ahead was closed, but I just ignored them!
But not to cyclists!

Had to walk my bike over the two bridges which were being repaired. Or at least, walk over the temporary bridge constructed by the engineers. Which basically appeared to be a whole load of stones poured into the rivers!

Got to Marshfield, and went into the first gas station I could find. Asked about motels, and one women offered to drive ahead of me to show me where they were. Very kind. Although she did kind of spoil it by asking me if I was from Ireland. So I can add that to the Australian, Canadian and South African accents I've been mistaken for! Also saw possibly the funniest sign yet!
This road apparently has a couple of big hills, but some great views!

I really dont want to keep getting motels – its obviously more expensive than camping. But after long days in the sun its good to be able to get cooled down. In Marshfield tonight, its still supposed to be 28c at around 8pm tonight – if your in a tent with little shade its difficult to cool off. I did get a pool to cool off in today which was nice.

Whilst I was planning to do a longer day today, its good that I am now 'disappointed' to be only doing 65miles! And actually, if I can do 65miles a day I would finish around 2 weeks prior to my planned finish date – so would have plenty of time for rest days or sightseeing days.

Later on in the evening I saw a truck and a load of bikes in the carpark. Went to say hello and it was a group doing a cross country ride for http://www.biketheusforms.org/ . This is a big organisation which has lots of riders crossing the country to raise money for MS. This group was 4 young guys and one of their mums who was driving the support van. Whilst I like the self sufficiency of my ride, it must be nice to not have to carry anything! They were very friendly and gave me a bottle of gatorade and a whole load of powerbar energy bars! They had a whole huge box full of them, as apparently they are one of the sponsors!

1 comment:

  1. I love the road signs! very very funny :-)

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