first post on the road!

We're in the Jefferson City Library right now, waiting for our new friend Mitch to get back from his group ride.

Everything is 3 times harder when you're carrying all your gear. Of course, I underestimated how fast we'd be able to go. Yesterday, we did the first 30 miles in about 3 hours. After eating lunch, we ran into a HUGE thunderstorm...and it lasted the rest of the afternoon. We really wanted to make it as far as possible on the first day so we road through it the whole way. Only 66 miles in on the first day we decided to call it quits. The rain had made the Katy trail so much harder to ride. Found a campsite a couple miles off the trail and settled in for our first night. Somehow we picked a spot in the park that wasn't actually a campsite...oops. No one came by and said anything though, and our first night camping ended up being free! don't tell...

Today was a much later start than we planned on. We wanted to be on the road by 8, but it ended up being closer to 10! We really need to get our packing up routine down... The day went pretty well, nothing to interesting happened except for a few fallen trees we had to climb over. Oh, I did almost crash after getting hit by a butterfly! That thing tried to kill me, I swear!

Finally, we made it into Jefferson City. We had to go over the highway bridge, which was crazy! There were no shoulders, so we went as hard as we could to get over. The first turn after the bridge we ran into a bike shop. The guy there was so great! He gave me all kinds of tips on how to care for our Brooks saddles and even took the time to tension it for me. We hung out there for a while and then took off to get something to eat. By this time we'd been in the city for about 2 hours already. There's no camping around and our only options were hotel or pitching a tent in a farmer's field. We opted for the farmers field, can't hotel it on the SECOND day! As we headed out of the city, we passed a park and noticed a bunch of cyclists getting ready to leave on a ride. Decided to stop by and chat, see if they new of a good place to stay. A couple sentences in and Mitch offered his place for us to stay the night. Warm showers and a bed tonight! Off earlier tomorrow hopefully. Time to relieve Anona of her bike guarding duty!

Here are some pictures Dad took the first day. Ciao!