Buccs/Bucks on Bikes: 07/22/10

This in not a big deal to most of you, but you have seen the last "Bobby Napping" photo. Not because I have lost interest in the artistic interpretation of the photos....because Bobby is done napping. Here is the situation....when Bobby hits the 12th hour of sleep in a 24 hour period, he gets up and starts his day. So, what if his 12th hour falls at 5:15 am, you ask. Well, obviously, he starts his day. Here is the problem....if Bobby's day begins in a hotel room with five people that went to bed at the big boy and girl time of 9:45 pm (hoping to get a solid 8 1/2 hours of sleep), he still starts his day. So....Bobby is done napping.

Today was a little less stressful than yesterday. Driving in the van into Farmington after yesterday's ride, we saw the road we were to be riding on the next day. It had very high traffic and a pot-hole ridden shoulder. That was not going to work for us. So, two minutes on the computer and I found a safer and shorter route in Farmington. It isn't that hard to do. With that stretch taken care of and the rest of the day on nice country roads, we had a much needed, stress free day. Most of our roads were like riding the country roads around home....Rakestraw, Sugar Grove, Fletcher, Falknor.....

Today we left Missouri. We crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois at Chester, Missouri. We won't be in Illinois too long...we may even be out tomorrow. We will enter into Kentucky over the Ohio....wait a minute....not really over the Ohio River. We are going through the Ohio River at a town called Cave in Rock, Illinois. The road doesn't have a bridge, so the bikes and van have to take a ferry across the river. Should be interesting.

Tonight we are staying in Murphysboro, Illinois. As soon as we got into our room, we looked over the maps for the next couple of days. Lodging looks as though it could get a little tricky. Kim is in charge of securing each night's lodging, so I hope we can get it worked out. I don't want to see her stress over it. She continues to do an awesome job as tour director. But, I think she summed it up today when she said..."when this trip is over, our next trip is going to be to a place that I know something about."

Hopefully everyone reading this is doing well. We look forward to getting home and seeing everyone in a couple of weeks. Take care.