Trish & Phill's Tandem TransAmerican

Tour 2003 

May 29 Utica - Marion (73mi)

We had no breakfast available this morning as there were no local shops last night. We cycled down to a shop in town and had breakfast at a little shop that sold everything from hardware to tobacco ( no alcohol this is a dry state) The lady there cooked us up a nice meal and we sat with some local guys who appeared to have nothing better to do than sit around and talk at the coffee table. We must have amused the men in our Lycra clothing - guys in tight pants. One of the men smoked 4 cigarettes whiles we ate our food.

Another dog chase but this one was different. I noticed that one dog has only got three legs, guess he must have chased a car and caught it ! We are sick of the dog chases now One of the guys says he is ready to jump off his bike at the next chase and wrestle the dog down and bit it.

Some years ago I worked alongside an American Chemist who said there was no smell quite like a dead skunk on the road. He told us this so that no one would deliberately smell the chemical we used sometimes. I often wondered how bad a smell could be from a dead skunk after all I have never even seen a skunk alive or dead. Well this morning all that changed.

Again we had to get off the bike to push it up a big hill. Gasping for breath as we had ridden as far up the hill as possible we started to push past this mess (road kill) on the road. A few large lungful of the evil smelling fumes had me dry reaching. I walked on trying to get away from the smell but it stayed with me.  Guess you've heard of the song       "I left my heart in San Francisco" well I left my last three meals in Kentucky.  About every 10 paces up the hill I thru up. Initially Trish was laughing at all of this but by the time we had got to the top of the hill she was starting to reach watching me.  We must have looked an odd sight if anyone had been watching. 

We purchased a couple of bottle of red wine tonight to go with the great meal that Dick and Marty cooked, I must say it went down quite nicely. Look at the roots on this tree amazing it is still standing.

Page owned & maintained by Trish Collins email to  trishphill@aapt.net.au.  Last Updated 28/07/2003