Day 15

144 miles / 7:40 hours / 18.8 mph avg / 5067' climbing

Breakfast: 2 waffles, eggs, sausage, orange juice.
Snack: 2 bananas with nutella, coke, pretzels.
Lunch: ham+turkey+cheese+tomatoe+spinach sandwich, coke, 4 oreos.
Snack: mini donuts, coke, Gu, Mojo bar.
Dinner 1: chicken sandwich, fries and coke.
Dinner 2: big salad, pasta, water!
Snack: 2 yogurts, 2 bananas with manjar (thanks Mom).

Although today was the longest ride miles-wise, it was not the most dificult thanks to the excellent weather and roads. Being such a long ride, the group split and most everybody settle on whatever pace they could sustain for eight hours or so. The terrain consisted miles and miles of rolling hills...

The road was littered with road kill, mostly armadillos, possums and racoons with the ocassional dog, coyote, skunk and some birds. Lush farms on both sides gave us beautiful scenes with hay rolls, cows, donkeys, some goats and some of the most handsome horses I have ever seen. Here we have two young horses that haven't seen much action so they were trying to sweet talk the cows next door, but the milking cows get fondled every morning by farmer Joe so they were not that interested in what the stalions had to offer. Check the young-Brad-Pitt-kind-of-horse on the right!

How about them hay rolls, they are taller than me...

We passed many more abandoned houses (these are not as charming as yesterdays, but they haunt me anyway)...

 

Almost abandoned towns (this one is Francis)...

And some gas stations that should have been abandoned...

For those of you who liked the Tonka truck on the lawn from yesterday, here is the real deal (also on a lawn), it could be yours for a modest sum provided that you figure out how to take it home...

Here are a couple of oddities I managed to photograph:
A defunct swan lawn ornament in the dead town of Francis (see above).

The provocative strange name for a gas station chain (it was next to a place where you can wash your car and your pet)...

The Peanut company that sells farm chemicals (allen is the name of another almost abandoned Town)...

And the saddest little kid prision (although someone suggested that it may be so that the coyotes don't take the toddlers away). Sad looking anyway...