Sunday, October 12, 2008

Day 29: Poplar Bluff, MO to Union City, TN – October 12, 2008

Miles: 104 Miles
Ride Time: 6 hours 40 minutes
Avg. Speed: 15.7 Mph
Total Climbing: 1510 feet
Work: 4057 kJ

We crossed the mighty Mississippi River today and it required some improvising by our Trek Travel guides. The original plan was to take a ferry across but a government dispute has temporary closed it. We ended up loading everyone into the van and doing a 100 mile detour to get back to the other side. Once at the ferry landing in Hickman, Kentucky we continued on our way to the hotel.

The Mississippi River valley is very flat so we only had 1510 feet of climbing today. I did more work today then yesterday which had almost 8000 feet of climbing. The difference being is that today for the last 15 miles I raced to the hotel. (It was NASCAR Sunday) While Gary and I were taking photos of the Welcome to Kentucky sign the others had gone ahead. I pulled Gary to the group which took about 2 miles to catch them. Once I had caught my breath I decided to jump ahead because we were going up a hill. The group then gave chase and it took them almost all the way to the hotel to catch me. Grateful Dave had pulled the group back onto my wheel but he did not have enough to pass. I tried to break away again but Grateful kept on my wheel but I splintered most of his group.

We arrived at the hotel and broke out the beer. Beer is a recovery drink, isn’t? Our guides had called ahead for pizza. It was a great finish to another great day in our cross country adventure. Life is great.
Dog 2008 10 12_2173

More dogs chased us again.

cotton field 2008 10 12_2177 Cotton Field 2008 10 12_2180

cotton stacker 2008 10 12_2183

Cotton fields of Missouri and the machine that makes "mega bales"

Ricky Bobby at the Mississippi River 2008 10 12_2202

Ricky Bobby at the Mississippi River.


I hope you get a chance to check out the other photos from today on Flickr.

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