Is that a herd of deer on the wall?

It goes without saying that we were elated to wake up to this magnificent sunrise. AHH, so beautiful and a great way to start the day.
Having access to the church kitchen made it really hard to get on the road early. Brooke and I have been really good about saving money by camping out. So having a stove, coffee pot, microwave and a real table and chairs at our disposal was something we wanted to lazily enjoy. We decided to sit and have an entire second pot of coffee, just because we could.

The downside to that decision was that we ended up riding until almost 5 p.m. through the hottest part of the day. We had 70 miles to ride, and we got a late start. Our bicycle map takes us on backroads through small towns and there are usually 30 plus miles in between towns. So, it’s not like you can just stop at any point when you become tired and frustrated with riding. Often times, you are out in the middle of nowhere, and there is nothing to stop at for miles.
Here in Kansas, the heat has been unbearable. There has been a heat advisory, which makes riding in the middle of the afternoon borderline dangerous. So, we’ve been trying to get on the road as early as possible to get the riding done before it gets too stifling hot.

We finally headed out, and things were fine, we had a nice tailwind and were making good time. Until this.We had to go around, which added time and miles. We continued on, until this.

UGH. Again, we got around it, but added time and miles.

It was getting late, and we were overheated. We stopped into a little gas station and ran into two bikers heading the opposite direction. They mentioned a women they met about 15 miles down the road who hosts bikers in the town’s community center. The two cyclists were adamant that we stop and check it out. We were looking for the last house on the right in the small town of Coyville.

We rode right up, and knocked on the door. Only on a self contained bicycle tour would we do something like this. Gayla answered the door, acting as though she expected us. “Come on in!” “what do you need?” “ice water?” “would you like to do laundry?” “sit down, here’s the TV remote and make yourself at home.”

The first thing I saw upon entering the door was a mass amount of deer antlers. Oh yikes. Taxidermy- the act of mounting or reproducing dead animals for display. Check this out.

I’m obviously no hunter, I don’t eat meat, and I admit I was a little stunned by the zoo on the wall. But, Gayla was great, and she asked us to stay for dinner and let us shower and do laundry. How awesome is that? Gayla was a fast talker and often answered her own questions. She was a riot. We ate dinner under the eyes of the 10 or 12 mounted deer on the wall. After dinner, she took us across the street to the town community center, where we would sleep for the night. Yes, air conditioning and a roof!

Melissa