Day 147. Sept 18. Tuesday. Eureka to Cuba, MO

A brutally hot day. Tomorrow is another 20 miles longer and heat still in the forecast. Today we saw 95 degrees. I may melt along side the road. We all got in before 2 and to think we may not get into until 4 is depressing. We’ve had no clouds whatsoever. Shade has been hard to come by. And when you go from light to dark pavement, you can feel the heat go up by several degrees.

The place to turn off route today was teally confusing. I was probably the last to get there so couldn’t wait for someone to show up and confer with. I hemmed and hawed and finally went on the correct route but there were no street signs and our instructions were a little dubious. It was a guess for me.

Allen is a very good navigator but he wrote his directions down wrong. So he ended up going into town and riding an extra 6 miles. He laughed about it but even one mile in this heat is too much.

We have a guy on our trip, Mark, who is very bike mechanically inclined and apparently just loves to work on bikes. Yeah! I have a problem and I know where I’m going. He offered to look at Alison’s and my bike on our rest day and we said, “sure”. He oiled our chains, checked our tires for possible issues, and even worked on my hub. I am so grateful.

We are all in bed by 8, almost dark, and up by 5:30, still dark. We need the sleep but it is so hot, we just lay in our tents and sweat. I hate it. Not a breeze anywhere.

56.2miles today . 4292.6 total