Today we made it to Memphis. Well, Millington, actually, but it's pretty close. We left Cape Girardo at about 6:30 thinking that we had to go about 190 miles. As Austin's constant updates show, it turned out to be 199, so a couple miles short of our longest day. Nick said we should ride up and down the street until we hit two hundred, but since we've already got one official double century under our belts, we figured we could live with 199 miles.
And as Austin's pictures show, today was pretty eventful. We rode through four different states: Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Kentucky was new, Tennessee we haven't ridden in since we were doing our training. But reaching Tennessee means the end is in sight, nineteen states and one district later. Today's journey is only one step from our final event in Nashville.
And today's journey was certainly eventful. I got three flat tires (one was only a slow leak, so I didn't need to change it), and Austin got one. While we were in St. Louis, Elizabeth, who works at St. Louis Children's, had showed us around her city. In the midst of sightseeing she braved a downpour and took us to a bike shop so we could get some new tubes. It's a good thing - we went through all of them.
Shortly after my third flat tire, at about mile 150, Austin and I picked up the pace a little. It was the first time I ever hit 37 mph on flat ground. I wish I could keep up speed like that, but since I can't, we didn't make it to Millington until after 10:00.
Our hosts were great. They stayed up and made us dinner when we arrived, introduced us to their new puppy, and let us play with their kids until bedtime. With all this good treatment, we should be ready for tomorrow's ride. That should only be about 100 miles, so hopefully we'll be rejuvenated and ready to go by morning.
~ Tom
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