Down to three

We woke up early and said goodbye to Jeremy who stayed behind in Eminence. It was three riders again. Part of the decision-making process the night before had hinged on a hill that looked nearly vertical on the elevation profile. Our waitress at the pizza joint said her car had a tough time getting up it. She also told us the thermometer on her dash had read 103 earlier that day. The older gentleman who had lent us his spigot said we might have to walk up it. Overblown. It was steep, but short, and we got to the top. It was all the more difficult, however, because of loose gravel on the road. Or I should say loose gravel was the road, for twenty-five miles. The steamroller must have been late that day. As we were leaving the campground a lifted truck pulled around us, slowed in front, then accelerated hard and shot a spray of gravel backwards. Nice. Thank you. That was foul. Most foul. The original text of this post had some nastier things to say but we're trying to keep a bent toward optimism.

Anyway, enough with the locals. Jordan, Adam, and I got up the hill – scoffed at it and moved on. We got to Summersville and had a fine break at a “Summer Fresh” grocery store and then it was forward to Houston and lunch at a Subway. We think Subway should sponsor us. It would cut costs quite a bit. We spoke to Jeremy on the phone and it went from bad to worse. While hanging out in Eminence, he had taken a closer look at his rear wheel and spotted hairline cracks emanating from the eyelets of his rim. Not good. That means eventual failure. Will it never end? We have, however, finally made it to the rolling farm country. The land is opening up around us. We made it to a place called Bendavis where the tap water was no good. Jordan and I bought bottled water.

The elevation profile lied to us again, but in a nice way, and we got to Hartville without an anticipated steep climb. We really should stop reading too much into those profiles but it takes a couple weeks for us to learn anything. In Hartville you can camp on the courthouse lawn, so we did. All of the civic business for the county is housed in one building. The library was closed but we did have access to bathrooms and wifi. We met a cool deputy who gave us the scoop on the services available and we talked a little bit about his upcoming entry into a police academy. We also met a variety of mild crazies out on the lawn including one lady who was eying some cookies I had pretty hard. I thought the polite thing to do was offer one but she didn't like nuts. Jordan told her his Nutella spread had hazelnuts, lots of them. The doors to the courthouse also lock after you, so we had a cyclical dance of smelly ruffians letting each other into the building. I got online to research potential solutions for Jeremy's wheel and we talked on the telephone about what he might do. The situation remained unresolved. On a positive note, we charged many of our electronic devices. The bugs weren't out in quite as much force so Adam and I slept without a tent.

Canoe country.

That hill wasn't that hard.

Pushing miles.

Big sky.