AAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!

The title of this blog is indicitive of my entire attitude towards life yesterday. It was quite possibly the hardest day of my entire life. I spent a solid 30% of it crying. I don't really want to rehash how HORRIBLE it was, so I'm just going to give you a point form update of what went on during the journey from Cairo, Illinois to Perryville, Missouri. Gah I get angry just thinking about it. Here was our day:

-Wake up
-About to leave hotel, when we realize that one of Dad's spokes is broken
-Take wheel off and fix spoke (takes about 20 min.)
-Leave hotel and bike 1/2 a mile until I get a flat tire
-Fix flat tire (30 min.)
- Go across Mississippi River Bridge and almost get hit by 5 semi-trucks who don't know how to share the road
-Flat ground apparently doesn't exist in Missouri, so we went UP and DOWN, UP and DOWN GIANT hills ALL day averaging at a speed of 5 miles/hr
-I try and think of the different ways I can potentially damage my bike so that I won't ever have to ride it again
-Roads closed due to high water levels. 8 mile Detour. (Gag me with a jagged spatula)
-We arrive in Perryville (finally!) but our hotel is nowhere to be found...Oh RIGHT! It's 5 miles OUTSIDE of town in the SOUTHERN direction (aka exactly the opposite direction of where we want to go)
-Arrive at hotel
-They don't have our reservation
-Get one of the last two rooms in the place-second floor, smoking. Awesome.

And...that was my day! We went 78 miles, and it was the most difficult thing I've ever done. I still can't believe I survived. Today was a lot better, but we were still tired from yesterday's disasters. We went 62 miles, and although we had another flat tire and our pannier racks both broke, everything worked out. While we were fixing the flat tire, a woman named Margarette came out of her house, offered us a bench to sit on under a tree and brought us iced tea and granola bars. She was wonderful, and was our mother for the day. :)
The one thing that I actually ENJOYED yesterday was my Dad and I's pit stop at a convenience store just south of Perryville. We were very tired and needed something to eat. Dad told me to go into the store and buy him a quart of milk. But, the smallest jug they had was 2 Litres. So, I brought it out and bought some chocolate chip cookies. The two of us sat outside, passing the milk between us (drinking it straight from the jug) and had our own version of the classic snack, "milk and cookies". The BEST part was this group of women came up to us and said, "Excuse me-are you from around here? We're looking for Walker Street". I couldn't help but wonder WHY in the WORLD people would think WE would know what's going on when we're wearing matching neon jackets, drinking milk out of the carton on the curb of a gas station and looking so discouraged because of the horrible day that we'd had....
Anyways, tomorrow we are going through St. Louis and have to stop at a bike shop to get more tools.
I'll keep you posted!
A
P.S HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! We miss you mumsie! :)
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