July 6 - Jeff

July 6, 2013

Shout out to my daughter Nicki and son-in-law Tom.  They are celebrating their first anniversary tomorrow, July 7. I think they are celebrating in Louisville.

Wind finally died down in the city park last night.  Still hot though.  Lots of noise in park during the night.

Crossed a time zone yesterday.  Now only one hour behind.  Left about 6:15 new time.  Rode a little in the dark.  No traffic.  Good riding.  Got to a diner in Dighton.  Pancakes for the first time in at least a week.  Met our acquaintance Josh again on the road.  He is neuro scientist at Columbia University.  He never heard of Aly’s disease.  He wears Sesame Street shirts.  A great guy.  Scenery is getting greener and seeing more things growing.  World is a little less depressing as we move east.  We ended up at our destination, Alexander around noon.  Our camping plans were in a rest area.  As far as rest areas go, it was pretty nice.  Jerry got there and suggested we move on to Lander, 42 miles away.  He was feeling spunky.  So we had gone 75 miles and he wants to go 42 more.  Do the math.  One big problem though, the wind comes from the South in 30-35 mile per hour gusts.  Our route took us 19 miles due south.  I think you get the picture.  For 19 miles, the best we could do was 6-8 miles per hour. It was brutal.  Hardest day we have had.  Against the wind took on a new meaning.  The little engine that could would also apply.  Inch by inch life is a cinch also took on new meaning.  You really can’t imagine.  Those 42 miles were the toughest of the trip.  We were ready to kick Jerry’s #$% for suggesting this except for the fact that the city park Sue found in Lander had a pool and showers and they were free.  So Jerry gained a reprieve. So we are pooped but we are cool.  Of course, we were already “cool”, but now we are really cool.   Pizza Hut is cooking for us tonight.

Couple Tom Hank’s connections.  I think in Kansas, I have seen that place where he is at the crossroads in the middle of nowhere in the Castaways movie at the end.  Kansas has a lot of places like that.  Also, some people ask us why we are doing this.  Then the quote he makes in Forrest Gump comes to mind about running to the end of the driveway and he just kept going. 

Saw our second train today.  We have seen a lot deserted trains just rusting, but only two that were moving.

Short entry tonight.  We are whupped.  117 miles today.

Jeff, Jerry, Jack, and Sue