Today was one of my favorite rides so far. It was just beautiful all the way. We passed miles of farm land and hay fields, and pastures with more of those beautiful white horses you saw in my photos at The Homestead. They look like work horses, to me. We saw lots of American flags along the way in celebration of Memorial Day on Monday. We had our steepest climb of the tour today, too. Kathy said she saw 20% on her Garmin, but all I know is that I had to get off my bike and push for about 50 yards. I couldn't pedal and breathe at the same time. I was able to get back on the bike after walking, but had to just stand up and crank to the top of the hill. It was tough!
I've been wanting to tell you about our SAG, the white Subaru. It's name is "Little Bo Peep", and we are the "sheep". It's packed with apples, oranges, bananas, gatorade, and all kinds of snacks, sunscreen, and first aid stuff. Today we had fresh cherries and apricots, too. Patti fixed lunch for us today because of the long miles with no stores. We had turkey sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and avocado, potato salad, black bean salsa and chips, pickles, and probably some things I'm forgetting. It was just great--I must have been really hungry--all this talk about food. But, really, the food has been a great part of this tour. Soooo good!! I might as well tell you that our last stop of the day was at a Dairy Queen. After 86.8 miles and six and a half hours of riding, ice cream just hit the spot!! I wonder if I'm going to gain weight on this tour? I think all that stuff you hear about being able to eat anything you want and not gain weight while biking across the country just can't be true. I decided today that peanut M&Ms would meet Andy Holyfield's idea of a healthy snack. She says always combine a carb with a protein, and that equals peanut M&Ms to me.
Tomorrow we have a VERY short day--28 miles to Henderson, Kentucky. Breakfast is not until 8:30, so we can even sleep late. Oh, Mike made it home safely, too. Funny, it took us about the same amount of time to ride our 86 miles as it did him to drive from Kentucky back to Louisiana!
