Friday July 24

Hello
Today was a day from hades. Not only was it hot and the hills murder. But I lost Melvin the last half of the day. Which was kind of frightening. But we found him or rather he found me at the end of the day. We stopped at a nice farmhouse to have breakfast. They had a really 1930 ford car there and a donkey and a 64 Chevy convertible. But the great breakfast they was nice looking but really expensive after the nice breakfast we had the day before. So we skipped it and went down the road. We had a really stop at peking school which had a great place to stop and eat and rest and get out of the sun which was starting to really bear down among us. After that we had a nice ride for a while. It was right after the meeting place that the hills got to me and i was a little slower. Melvin was ahead of me and got to the top of the hill and somewhere he must of turned his back to me and I passed him. I even slowed down at the next pass trough town and I thought maybe he just continued pedaling. By this time it in the afternoon and it was hot and we were battling a headwind. I stopped several times to cool off and try to un numb my bottom, and still no Melvin. I finally made it to the last night of camping on the trip. However to add to the frustration of losing Melvin, My phone battery gave out and I had no way to contact Dave and lisa to ascetain where they were located. I finally made it to the campground and every rider and support vehicles were located at the old thresher campground. Boy was it ever large and intimating. I had to use the Iowa telecom trailer to call Jan to have her call mom to get David's cell number so Jan could call David and find out where he was located. It worked and I found David and Lisa all set up. Boy did they ever find a great spot. Right across from the thresher museum and even better across from the restrooms and free hot shower. It was great. Because we having to pay $5 dollars every night for a shower. By this time I was still looking for Melvin. I went back to the information booth and was looking for him when all of a sudden Melvin appeared behind me. So everything worked out. We went to supper at st Al's in town a catholic church. It was great fried fish with all the trimmings including dessert. When we went back to the campground to settle down for the night we were told to prepare for a big storm. It was hard to believe because the sky was fairly clear. However later that night the police were coming through the campground tell everyone to evacuate to the museum buildings to avoid the storms. We were able to look through the museum for free. The great part was we got to look the museum buildings for free. The storm also split and bypassed us. So it was great. We went to bed.