Memphis, TX - I didn't even know it existed.

Today should have been easy - only 73 miles, and most of it flat.

Waking up to a thunderous sky and air with an ominous chill however, did not provide for the easiest riding conditions.

We started our day at McDonald's to take advantage of our free breakfast, and I managed to eat as healthily as McDonald's will allow - a biscuit, some eggs, orange juice, hot tea, milk, and a chocolate milk for the road. The cashier laughed at my abundance of liquid intake, but the opportunity to have both caffeine and orange juice seemed way too good to pass up...and besides, we've got to hydrate, right?

While we were sitting at breakfast though, the rain started coming down and it was obvious it wasn't going to be a passing sort of storm. A bunch of us hadn't been all that intelligent and had packed rain jackets, arm warmers, etc into our luggage that had already been put away for the day...the leaders were nice enough to let us unload the whole trailer to get our gear - I'm incredibly grateful because the day would have been otherwise completely miserable.

And so we started our ride, me protesting the whole way. I was convinced we should hitchhike. Overall, I'm determined to ride every single mile of this trip, but at that point, I really didn't care at all. Any guy in a pickup truck would have looked like a savior.

But, we kept pedaling forward (I resorted to counting strokes for a while - I got to 800-something before my brain threatened to explode), and we eventually got through enough miles to make me realize we were really going to do the godforsaken ride. We spent a bunch of miles remembering every day and every city of the trip - we managed to recall all of the different host locations and even moved on to details from each meal. I want to write down a bunch of key words so that I can keep it all in my head as much as possible.

During a stint of lightening, we sought shelter at a little house where a standard poodle was keeping watch. I tried to befriend it by smiling and talking, but it just looked at me like I was a little bit of a moron. Then, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch around mile 35 in a little town (Hollis, OK) and ate catfish and burgers and raised $60 for affordable housing.

After lunch the rain was a lot more calm and the rest of the ride was uneventful. The last 20 miles into Memphis, TX were hillyhillyhilly, but I had been warned beforehand and they weren't nearly as bad as they could have been. The rain had cooled everything down, and most of the hills were just long with low grades - I like those much better than the short steep ones.

Overall, it was actually a lot of fun to ride in the rain. We ended up in a group of about 8 people, and we talked and laughed a lot. The ride that should have taken 5 hours took more like 7, but it was a day that made me smile, so that extra two hours were well worth it.

And so now we're in Memphis. I showered, napped, and ate and now I'm ready for bed. One more long (90+m) ride into Amarillo and then we have a day off. My legs need a break to recover and rebuild, and my butt is more than a little sore. 5 AM wake up tomorrow; I hate thinking about it and every morning the first thing I say is 'I wanna go home', but then I get on the bike and eventually get to the next city and I'm almost happy.