It’s so funny after posting last night that we’ve come all this way and haven’t seen one deer. I saw three this morning, see photo. Today was a Tim  McGraw kind of Sunday ride through the country. Our 78 miles was like a day of picking low hanging fruit. Easy peasy kind of ride, fun, fast, flat- ish with really high quality road surfaces. You really become in tune and acutely aware of the surfaces you are riding. Along with that the variety of sounds each surface makes. It’s like the road actually speaking to you. Really smooth roads are a quiet symphony and gritty roads are like fingernails on a blackboard. Rough open grain begins to annoy you but you tolerate them. Rumble strips are to avoided by all means as they rattle every part of you apart. Debris laden roads are mine fields and holes can be a quick trip to urgent care.  Each dictates a totally different sound. 

Today’s early conversations ranged from being dropped, and the competitive nature of group riding. My comment on the subject  was, being dropped is like being the last kid picked in gym class. Then we switched to wondering if Ian was riding today in a cotton jersey or a poly blend. A few days ago one comment was ” boy those cows sure are black ” my reply as I wasn’t interested in where this conversation might be going was ” yep, they’re black cows “. End of conversation. 

Fun things I saw  on the road today, ? Well 2 mobile homes with confederate flags , a yard decorated in gum ball machines a road kill badger, and the biggest road kill raccoon ever. 

Best convenience store lingo from a clerk, you want that in a sack? ( bag, round these parts ) reply ” no I’ll just take the pop ( soda ). 

Best bargain, DVD 1 day rentals for .39 cents !  I had an ice cream cone a few days ago for .65 cents. !! 

Today’s only speed bump, we had to detour to another bridge across the Mississippi as the one we had in our route was closed ! That wasn’t bad but the section of interstate we had to ride was. Especially the LEFT hand exist we had to yield  across all the lanes to make. Try moving left across 3 interstate lanes  with cars and trucks going 75 mph when you’re on a bike going 25 mph ! 

Once we crossed the mighty Mississippi, we found a well know sandwich place, the Quincy Illinois Maid Rite West, yes Maid not Made . Apparently food guru Alton Brown stopped there once. He quotes their Maid Rite sandwich is ” a Midwest Marvel  of Sandwiches”.  Honestly it was a cheesy version of a sloppy joe and no big deal 

Quincy is the very first larger city we’ve ridden into. The first thing I noticed immediately was the smell. After being in rural agricultural and Wild West open lands, the city smell wasn’t welcome.  You can have cities if you ask me. 

Before I go, please consider sharing and tagging  this blog. My goal as you know ( I hope ) is to reach out to the  ALS community. To let them know there are people and groups of volunteers like Team Godfather Charitable Foundation working to find a cure to ALS. And to make them aware that there are ALS laboratories working everyday on ALS specific studies and trials. By helping share this message, you can help by giving them hope. By helping share and tag  you’re helping the cause, Coast 2 Coast. Many thanks and keep riding along.