Monday, May 10, 2010

Day 23

118 miles / 7:00 hours / 16.9 mph avg / 5633' climbing

Breakfast: waffle, oatmeal, orange juice, muffin with sausage and egg. The delicious banana bread that Elizabeth sent me did not make very far; I made the mistake of sharing some of the half that I hadn't eaten and it all went in about 15 seconds.
Snack: banana, 2 oreos.
Lunch:1 1/2 sandwich, 2 bananas, oreos, coke.
Snack: Gu.
Dinner: Capresse salad, green salad, bread sticks, fettuccine Alfredo (double portion) with chicken, coke, shake.

Today was a hard day for me, it started ok, but about 5 miles into it, the back of my right knee started to hurt. I guess there was some strange compensation going on from the cramp I had on the quadriceps. The following 60 miles were an exercise on careful attention to body mechanics and determination (i.e. stubbornness). I rode it alone so I did not get tempted to pace somebody else. It all worked out fine since by the lunch stop at mile 73 I was pain free and I was able to finish the ride comfortably and happy (I was going fast and that makes me happy). All this means that I did not take many pictures, I was really concentrating...

It has become increasingly strange to me that I seem to see way too many churches. Yes, I know this is the Bible Belt, but how many churches can you really have? And given that we rode mostly on rural country roads, how many people does each church get? Just to show you, here are a couple.

Notice how the county puts signs announcing the church. Other signs read "Slow Church Ahead" which I tend to read as "Slow Church, Ahead" (notice the comma and I didn't get a picture of that one).
Baptist
Methodist

The sign in front reads: 
"A woman that fears the Lord is to be praised" 
(draw your own conclusions)

Today we were plagued by dogs. From the small yapping ones to a three legged pit bull that can run 20 mph. Scary, but only when they get in front of you, mostly we yelled at them or sprayed water to scare them enough to let us through. We also managed to see some freedom of expression examples. I really felt a connection with this one.

And your typical political signs: Elect such-and-such for Sheriff, etc. But I think Tommy might want to reconsider his candidacy:
(Tommy GLASSCOCK 
Superintendent of Education)

And lastly a couple of old abandoned buildings. I guess what intrigues me is how come they are left behind. Does anybody own the property anymore? Is the property so big that they just build another house someplace else that I didn't notice?


And I am really starting to like old barns too. Some are still in use.

I have seen what happens to more modern housing when it is abandoned and it ain't pretty. No charm, I guess in 50 years someone might consider them charming, but I don't really think so. Just imagine what this beauty will look like when it finally perishes.

I forgot to mention that we passed many houses with tornado bunkers on their yards. They look like bomb shelters (and I guess they could be used as such in a pinch), but I didn't stop for a photo. Lets see if i can manage one tomorrow. More apologies, I did not get a picture, but I also saw what happens when a tornado hits: Think "house on a blender" and mature trees tossed around with abandon, roots and all in some cases, lots of broken branches, as if the forest had a bad hair day.

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