Day 24, Tuesday, October 1

Today went by as quickly as possible, since I drafted Doreen and Josh on their tandem almost the entire day. There was a snafu in the morning when Lon paid my phone bill because the person at the hotel check-out counter told him that I hadn't paid it even though I had. I had to get my receipt, which I knew exactly where it was since I'd left it in the garbage, then go to the check-out guy to get Lon's money back, but the check-out guy said he had no proof that Lon had paid my phone bill, too, and that I needed Lon's receipt. Susan said that she would take care of it, but I guess they're still trying to get their money back from double-paying my phone bill this morning.

By the time I was able to get on the road I was pretty annoyed by the delay -- especially since I had made sure to pay my phone bill in the evening precisely so that I wouldn't cause Lon and Susan any trouble -- and rode much faster out of irritation than I would have otherwise. The tandem picked me up just before the first rest stop and that sped up my pace even more. It was a nice way to wind down the trip, to finish the second-to-last day strong.

I couldn't even tell you what the landscape looked like today, I was so focused on keeping pace with the tandem. We have been passing through towns with funny names, though. Like today we rode through Norway, and a sign in town said that Denmark was five miles to the right. Yesterday we rode through Due West, although I'm pretty sure we were riding south east to get there. I'm sure it's due west of somewhere, though. A couple of days ago we passed through Talking Rock, with a population of 91, I think, and a few days before that was Friendship, with a population of 216. Don't quote me on those numbers, but they were small towns at any rate. Some of the street names have been pretty funny, too. Like Borned Black, Earnest Bacon, and Betty Jo Road. We even passed by Furnace Creek Road, which is the location and name of a 508-mile bicycle race in California, and passed the town of Woodside, which is also a frequent cycling destination back home.

Both Landon and Richard 's wives met them at the hotel this afternoon. They had driven in from Iowa, where Landon and Richard race together. I thought about making some crack about how Landon's and Richard's wives have something in common with Josh -- they all have spouses who shave their legs. I didn't actually think of it until after I met them, though, which is probably better since I'm a little bit punchy at this point in the trip and have lost perspective on what might be offensive. For example, today as some one passed they commented that it must be nice to be wearing a tank top since it was so hot and I said, "Yeah, it feels so good I was thinking of riding naked." No one said much to that, so maybe they just take it for granted that we're all a little out of it at this point.

Speaking of being out of it, I had one of the most surreal dreams in my life last night. There was and old man and an old old woman who were a couple. They were running against each other in some election and their other opponent was a giant stuffed-animal lobster. Everything in the dream was like in a carnival, with everyone dressed in weird costumes and feathered animal suits. Even their house was more like a fun-house than a house you could live in, with windy, twisty stairs that just came back to where they started. I guess that's kind of like this trip. We spend all day following directions like, "At mile 108.5, turn right on a hidden, unmarked road with a small white house on the corner." After following turn after turn all day, we pretty much end up where we started, at another hotel in another town with a main strip lined with fast food chains. The directions have actually been excellent, and I prefer the chain restaurants to scary local dives, but waking up after the dream I definitely felt like my brain is getting fried and I'm ready to be home with a normal routine again.

Speaking of eating at chain restaurants, I got Subway sandwiches for dinner again tonight because all of the local restaurants seemed scary. I had a six-inch meatball sub and a six-inch veggie delight sub, and by the time I was done I was still starving so I headed to the grocery store to supplement my dinner with soy milk, yogurt, and juice. I ended up finding Krispy Kreame donuts at the store, and bought two chocolate glazed donuts for a dollar. Kim at work brings Krispy Kreame donuts in every Thursday and seems to think that I eat too healthily since I always turn them down, so I took a picture of my two donuts before I ate them just as proof. I guess that would be pretty shameful to ride all the way across the country and not eat any donuts, although I've done pretty well with ice cream. I drank nearly a full two quarts of orange juice with my donuts and am now feeling like it would be a good idea to save my soy milk and yogurt for the morning.

Most nights when I get sandwiches and groceries for dinner instead of sitting down someplace, I like to eat alone in my room so that I can save time and get my stuff organized for the next day while I eat. Since it's so close to the end of the trip, though, I felt like having company while I ate and stopped at the laundromat across the street to eat, since several cyclists were in there doing laundry. Crew member Larry from Texas said that I had hit a new PAC Tour low, hanging out at the laundromat just for the social life.

At this point I'm more stressed out about all of the logistics of making it home Thursday than I am excited about actually finishing riding tomorrow. I'll have plenty of time to be excited about that when I get home. To get home I have to box up my bike, get to the airport with my bike and my luggage, and hope everything makes it on the connecting flight in Chicago. I guess if I can make it riding my bike across the country for twenty-five days, I can make it flying home in one.