10/23 days 4 and 5

We successfully waited out the rain in cape girardeah, thanks to our host who offered to let us stay an extra night. During our spectacular day off, we saw the great town so well known in missouri. Although we did not see the campus or any part of university life there, we did see lots of sights and took in what history we could, given craps weaths. First, we saw and ate at wendy's hamburger restaurant! I think ben agress that we probably both ate too much food. Then we went to the famed cape girardeah schnucks, where we bought some spices and a head of garlic. I asked myself inside, if I were an explorer and I could only bring two spices what would they be? Salt and pepper of course! So we got that ish and went back to our hostesses house for a much needed nappy. When we woke up, it was time for dinner so we helped to make some enchilada dinner, and I made a bastardized version of cheryl evans 7 layer dip. It had corn. We slept well in our fold out futony and coucher. Good thing too because the next morning we were leaving regardless of the weather. Luckily we struck out under full cloud cover, made it through the hilly fifteen or so miles out of town, and as it flattened out, the weather became nicer and nicer. By the time we were basically on totally flats, it was sunny and breezy and pleasant. We pulled into a gas station for lunch that had pulled pork bbq sandies and $2.75 cigs. We knew we were in the south for sure. The rest of the day we spent winding along unknown roads, taking our time, but at a brisk clip due to a slight tailwind, talking about women, friends, music, all sorts of shit. We got to our final destination that day, a small town in the bootheel of missouri, and finished off a spectacular day of riding with a banana split (that's right mom) and a sundae at dairy queen. After such an awesome day, we had no idea what lay in store for us regarding the private rv/campground we were to sleep at. What we found was that it was a shitty shitty place. First off, the place is called boomland rv/camping which should have been our first clue to shittiness. The windswept field of dead corn stalks ten feet from our rv site could have been the next clue. As we struggled against gale force winds to set up our tents, all flappy in the air like damned kites, we looked at each other with an exasperated air of comedic shittiness. After we got set up, we explored the truck stop/grocery store/novelties and souvenirs/pizzeria/cafeteria/fudge factory that lay not a hundred yards from our site. Not to mention that we later found out about the prison, one half mile down the road from the place. Though they did have hot showers. After a long night of sleep, wakes, sleep, waker, slee, ben got up first. He had almost all his gear packed when I opened my tent for the first time. He went to get coffee at the nearby superplex while I got all mine packed. I took the tent stakes out of the ground, stupidly, before I got the poles out. I turned to put away the stakes when the gale-force winds blew my tent several hundred feet onto the field next to the site. I went ruuning after it, shirtless, screaming obscenities all the while. That was highly frustrating. What was even more frustrating, at first anyway, was todays ride. Although the terrain was flat as boarded houses, the wind seemed to blowing in our faces, no matter which direction we traveled. I think we went in all the cardinal directies, and got nothing but a windy face kicker that felt like the constant parachute or some other dumb. We sort of switched off, one of us taking the lead and the other drafting right behind. It works surprisingly well (from someone who has never really tried before.) Though windys, today was by far the most interesting yet. We met three characters. 1: mike the farmer. As we neared the ferry which takes you from missouri to kentucky, we were greeted in the middle of a very rural intersection by a man in his mid fifties with a southern drawl somethin terrible. He was extremely excited to see us and introduced himself as mike smith. He invited us into his farmy office and offered us some iced tea (my fav) and sat and talked with us a while. Seems he is also into riding, and has been known to do a couple centuries here and there. As we talked I asked what type of animals head was on the wall (the huge one that wasn't obviously a deer head.) He told us it was an elk he shot in new mexico around taos and consequently, that was the very reason he began biking. He said it was to acclimate his body to the elevation. He started riding fifteen miles a day, then 30, then 60, then it just became enjoyable to him, and he started doing rides. He told us about all the people who had ridden through over the past ten years and it was sweet. Mike the farmer, with a very thick accent. 2: unnamed kid in the convenience store in hickman kentucky. We stopped for luch at this place, one of the couple we saw during our very brief stint in kentucky (one of three states traveled in today.) The bbq was so so, but the company was next to perfect. I put my food down at a table in the back of the store, and this kidan maybe in 9th grade came and sat down with us and just talked and spun these hilarious jokes. I asked him how the bbq was there and he said, "oh its real nasty. Its got cockeroaches crawling in it and stuff. Just kiddin'." He kept making gay jokes and told us that he got a "30 gig ipod from this canoe guy, do yall like ipods? Well, I got it from him, a 30 gig, for 10 bucks and the turnt around and sold it for 20 bucks." I told him he should have held out for more. He kept making jokes about stealing my shades too. What a wacky little kid. 3: unnamed girl in the parking lot of the convenience store. She was mabe 9, blonde hair, really short and a little dirty. We walked out of the store after eating and the first thing she said to another kid was "shut the fuck up, fag," as she picked him up and turned him upside down. Then a guy walked by her and her friend and handed them both a wad of cash and said, "there, that's three for the each of ya" and she said annoyed, "just three dollars?" And the man hurried away. Before we had a chance to think, she turned and said to me, "you know those are girls sunglasses right?" And I told her, "yeah, that's what all the guys wear in the big city." So that was our day. We now lay in realfoot lake state park campground in tennessee, after eating some beef stew and baked beans and a pack of burst for dessert. Exhausted and full and ready for tomorrow. We estimate we'll be in memphis, our next stopping point, in three days.
Sent from my fingers and brain.