Thursday, Friday, Saturday July 30 – August 1, 2008
McCook – Fremont 462k
Elevation gain 5276
Elevation loss 6831
Net loss 1559
Time 22.36
Maximum speed: 53.6k/h
Average speed; 20.4

Days become a blur; this week has been long and hot. On most days the temperature has topped 100f or 39c. The days have been long, 140 – 150 km 7-7:30 hours in the saddle, with little or no time to keep up the journal, so in fact I am combining three days in one. So here it is Sunday morning and I am trying to catch up

We reached two miles stones this week. At the end of Wednesday we had pedalled 27 days and had 27 days of pedalling left. On Thursday we passed this lovely Catholic church with a shrine to the Lady Fatima and this beautiful bronze statue

This statue was commissioned by the Catholic priest of this parish who was the chaplain to the army division that freed Dachau.

On Friday we had our second milestone of the week
At mile 1943 into the journey we were met with a SAG where we all had our picture taken, because this was the half-way mark on the tour. Here is the one of me and Clare Kooistra. I prefer the mileage reference, since that is also the year of my birth. I calculate that it has taken 610,000 revolutions of my pedals to get to this point.







The days have been long. I generally rise at 5 AM try to be on the road by six. That means I get into camp between four thirty and five. Now I have one hour to get a shower, set up my tent and maybe journal a little before supper. After supper we usually have about 45 minutes to try to get on line which has been really difficult because of the ongoing problems with the satellite connection. Others who arrive earlier often go to town to the library or an internet café and get it done before supper. At seven-thirty we have our pelaton meeting, [pelaton refers to a group of cyclist] then we meet as small groups till about nine. Next I get my bike ready for the next day, fill water bottles, check tires and pump them up check gears etc. and by nine-thirty or ten I’m back in bed and do it all over again the following day. And that schedule will pretty much continue until we get into Michigan.