I woke this morning feeling exhausted.  I had gone to bed early, having stayed up late the previous two nights with Chris and Jimmy, but what with the insects buzzing around my mosquito-netted head all night I hadn't slept well.  When I looked in the mirror, I saw that the mosquitos had bitten all over my forehead, so in addition to having freckles, I now appear too have acne!

This morning Natalie was still sick and cantankerous, so Jimmy stayed home to take care of her.  Rain was falling pretty hard, so I wasn't in a hurry to leave either, but I did around 8.  The rain continued nonstop until I got to my campsite around 3, and was intermittent after that.

Because of the rain, I only stopped when I found shelter, which wasn't as often as I would have liked.  The new seat position put more strain on my Achilles' tendons, so they began to hurt even as my knees showed dubious progress.

Chris had said he would get up early, so I asked him not to leave without waking me to say goodbye, but as it turned out I was up over an hour before he got up!  It was a slow morning until around 9:00 everything started jumping...

[posted to the Wheeled Migration Yahoo Group on November 16, 2004]

Hi, folks! I'm at the home of my friend Jimmy, whom I've known since preschool, and who joined this list three months ago without knowing it was mine. :-) He's been showing me the photos from his own cross-country bike ride in 1996.

Finally, a day when I didn't have to push myself... I woke at a leisurely hour and had a long conversation with Leela while packing, then rode at a comfortable pace into Plano and met Sara and her son Jordan for lunch.  Jordan is a few days short of 3 years old, and Sara plans to continue staying home full time.  Her degree is in biochemistry.  Her husband Jerry does classified work for a government contractor.

The plan today seemed simple enough: ride from Texoma to Wiley, set up camp in a park there, and have dinner with Sara (Ballard) Moore and her family.  Two problems: my knees hurt more than ever, and the Texas maps are a smaller scale than I'm used to.  This is not to mention the rain, which was just a bother.

[posted to the Wheeled Migration Yahoo Group on November 14, 2004]

Hi, folks! I made it to Texas! Last time I wrote, I was poised to ride into Oklahoma City from the north.

I started out today very discouraged.  My knees hurt more than ever, and the first few miles getting out of the park were all hills.  I got off and walked, but even walking hurt.  I didn't see how I could make it to Texas -- I'd have to change all my plans, etc. etc.  I thought about calling Mom & Dad, but I decided they had enough to worry about with 'Becca's baby shower, so I put off calling until evening.

Today was supposed to be a short ride, but knee pain necessitated a lot of stops, and the only campground with showers turned out to be a lot farther south than I had anticipated!

In Paoli, I stopped for coffee and wound up talking with the cafe owner about the trail riding (cattle driving) he did in the '70s.  He gave me my coffee for free, but I tipped generously.

I woke in the motel this morning and had trouble getting going, between the wet and cold outside, the horrible stale smoke inside, and a new pain in my left knee.  I put on a new knee bandage I had bought yesterday at the phone nurse's recommendation, but it just bunched up immediately and became more painful than the pain it was supposed to treat!