Daily Page 7

Hi Everyone.

We had good intentions of pedaling 70 miles today but had to settle for 63 as the sun was setting. The morning ride was fantastic--an extremely busy road but had wonderful shoulders. That feature surely takes a lot of pressure off of me. It's really scary riding on the road itself with trucks and cars lined up behind me and I am pedaling as fast as I can (about 5 miles an hour). With a shoulder to do my hilltop work on, I feel much better. We had 25 miles done before noon and as we pedaled down the road and looked up, the capitol outline was in the distance and we were approaching Jefferson City. We decided to ride into the city and take a look and the Capitol is absolutely gorgeous. We had hopes of meeting the Governor but he wasn't in town. The Speaker of the House's secretary, Kay Fitzpatrick, was so gracious and gave us a tour of the beautiful interior and the history behind it.

On the way as we had gotten close to Jefferson City, I pulled up beside Tony and he yelled, "Hold my bike" and ran out onto the middle of the freeway and proceeded to sweep his hand down and pick up a turtle that was obviously lost. He put him down on the side of the road but never knew if the turtle was coming or going--only that he didn't want him /her to get killed! Tony's big heart has now earned him another title "Turtle Rescuer."

The afternoon got steamy hot and we were pedaling on black top so we were burning. The Katy Trail was paralleling the highway so we scooted over there to ride and it was semi-shade because of trees so we were able to keep going. We knew we couldn't make the 70 mark today as we had gone to the Capitol. Making the miles is only part of our dream--we want to be meeting the people along the way and sharing our concerns for music education and the Ms. Sr. America Pageant.

What would we do without our Tony. He was a bit ahead of me and I saw him drop one of his gloves, scoop it up, his cleat got caught so he couldn't get his foot out and he landed in the ditch after accumulating some "road rash". He was so embarrassed and Gabriel wouldn't stop teasing him that he only wanted a closer look at all the cornfields lining the roadways. The farming country here is so beautiful. I'm beat!

Love, Patricia