Me and the dog...the race.

Day 20
4th July
Distance travelled: 93.6 miles
Time in saddle: 7hrs 47 mins
Overall distance travelled: 1802 miles

I hardly slept last night. I had some rally bad dreams. I’m not going into details but they kept waking me up through the night. I was going to have a rest day but decided against it. There may be things in the future where I may need some days in hand. I thought I might as well keep going while it was going so well.
The wind has been in my face all day and it’s very demoralizing. Sometimes I’m standing on the pedals and hardly moving. The hills are back. I’ve been up and down more times than a prostitutes knickers…. only I’m sweatier. I did stop for a break after about forty miles but I’ve not really spoken to anyone today. Highway 36 is really a lonely place. As I travel east things are getting greener. Towards the end of todays ride some of the scenery looked like a typical English country scene. I can’t wait to get home…I am really homesick at the moment. I am missing my boys and looking forward to seeing all my family and friends.
I know I am probably becoming obsessed by ‘road kill’ but today it was frogs. About sixty of them. What is it about the wildlife around here….what next cattle. Perhaps British wildlife is more traffic savvy.
By eighty miles I’d had enough. I had a goal today, to get to Belleville so that’s what I did. There must have been at least fifty hills but it didn’t really bother me…it is really a case of mind over matter. The last fifteen miles were a real grueller. It was a matter of grinding out the last few miles. I pinpointed a specific point in the landscape, perhaps a mile away and went for it, eventually I got to my final destination….sounds simple….it is, but it does hurt..
As I came to the motel that I decided to stay at for the night, I called at the office. It was closed. A note on the door suggested that anyone seeking help should go to the laundry room. I wandered around the back of the building looking for someone to book me into the motel. As I entered a side room I came face to face with a dog….I say a dog It was probably crossed with a Shetland pony and a sabre toothed tiger…it was big. I don’t know who was more surprised it or me. We stared at each other wondering what to do. I had cycled over ninety miles, I was tired with a capital F and my legs were like jelly. I thought about bluffing it out and using my superior intelligence to dominate the situation. It took me a milli-second to decide…. I decided to run for it. I turned quickly and ran as fast as I could. I remember when I was a kid, being chased by a farmer because I was scrumping his apples (Stealing off the tree) As the farmer chased me my legs just wouldn’t go any faster no matter how hard I tried. I remember calling for my mum under my breath and the veins in my neck sticking out to the point of bursting. …go forward forty years and here I was again. There were sparks off my cleats as they hit the tarmac. I heard the dog chasing me. What seemed like a lifetime past in about four seconds. I didn’t see it but I heard a yelp and tightening of a chain as the dog came to the end of it leach.
Ten minutes before I was hanging out my pants with tiredness. Now I was instantly buzzing…adrenaline, it’s an amazing thing….and brown is it’s colour.
I went for a walk into town…..it’s as dead as a dodo. I thought that the Americans knew how to party….not on this evidence. I went in to a bar. Everyone was watching ‘Home Alone Two’ Hardly radical. I’ve had more fun in ASDA. Apparently my mate told me that Thursday night in ASDA is singles night. The last time I went shopping the check out girl viewed my single items of food and said….”You haven’t got a partner have you” I asked her if she came to that conclusion because of my meagre rations?….she said “no, it’s because you are an ugly git” ….got to get them in I’m sorry.
I’ve developed a squeak. I don’t know if it’s my bike or me. I have tried free-wheeling and its fine. It’s just when I peddle. I’ve lubricated all moving parts and tightened up my nuts…..I’m going to do the bike later and see if that helps.