What a sweet sleep I enjoyed in the Lutheran church foyer in Fremont! Already at breakfast we saw the American flag flying straight in the wind, and we didn't like the direction where it pointed at all. Another day of stoic struggling with the wind ahead, it seemed. I thought working our way from West to East over the continent meant that the prevailing winds would be from behind...but I suppose fighting wind wars are better to endure on a bike than the soaking rains these parts saw a couple of weeks ago. It was a bit cooler today with nice cloud cover and even a bit of light rain. We rode through more lovely farmland, with every visible growing thing a lush green. Nice horses and lots of corn and soy beans again.
I rode with Eritia Smit today, a great cyclist and athlete half my age. We are in the same small group as well. We worked the wind well together taking turns to pull. Just before crossing the Missouri river, it happened. We were coasting downhill at 30km/h with Eritia leading, when suddenly a white Blazer cut her off to turn into a gas station. Eritia was looking sideways at the time and never saw it coming although I yelled a warning to her. She hit the mirror with her chest and went sprawling, fortunately only sustaining bruises and a few cuts. The lady driver said she had seen us way up the hill, and I guess she never knew bikes can move so fast, as she didn't look in her side mirror again and never indicated a right turn before she cut into the entrance. When I went to her to get her info her son started an avalanche of unsavoury language and it was hard to calm them both down, as she was on her way to dialysis she said. When the police officer arrived, he mentioned that there was an outstanding warrant for these people on his computer. After being patched up by Betsy our nurse, Eritia insisted to finish the ride despite hurting. We soon crossed into Iowa after negotiating the steel meshed bridge over the Missouri river. Not nice on a bike for sure. Best not to look down and keep your eyes on the other side while letting the bike find its own way slipping around a little on the steel. Falling on that would resemble something like a cheese grater...... Mark and I rode with Eritia and shielded her from the brunt of the wind. Tonight she is sleeping at Barb Mellema's house as she is still shocked and needs a bit of pampering.
In Sioux City we are staying at Sargent Bluff in a church again with nice airconditioning in the gym we sleep in. Quite a sight to see all the bodies and luggage strewn all over the floor. We are like an enormous family now ... knowing and accepting most of each others peculiarities. This church has a computer lab with 10 computers which are firewalled so we could not get into our blogs. My laptop refused to log onto the Wifi so I'm storing the blog on a memory stick to be posted hopefully tomorrow with some more pictures....maybe in a public library, who knows.... Tuesday is our only short day this week, 100km, and we are thankful for the reprieve before the 180km each of the following 2 days. We had a nice swim and shower at the lovely public swimming pool next door, and a nice pasta dinner tonight. Looking forward to the rest of the tour although I miss my loved ones, dear friends, home, garden and pets very much!
(Response to mdp@rogers.com if you feel like it will be appreciated)
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