Day 19 - Hard Pedaling, Driving Rain, and Going Solo?

I woke up feeling really strong today. When I got on the road it immediately translated into hard pedaling. I felt fast. Despite falling asleep last night in humidity so high that I was sweating as I lay in my tent, despite the downward slope I was sleeping on, and despite the early am rainstorm I still felt good! Last night we camped beside this lake in a small park. The lake was nice to take a dip in after the days ride, washing away all the sweat, bug spray, and sun screen that accumulates between showers. I was a bit hesitant to jump into the lake having had a few bad experiences with polluted lakes back in CT as a kid, a couple places it turned out people had been flushing raw sewage from their homes into the lakes. Unfortunately this was only discovered a few years after we had frequented the area although it did explain the consistent ear infections. But I got over it and took a cooling dip.

I accidentally slept in this morning. My usually internal alarm clock lapsed and I found myself waking up at 6:30. Feeling as though I had a late start on the day probably helped intensify my desire to pedal, that and I knew I was going to be meeting up with Julia. I haven't seen her in almost four weeks! To make a short story short, I rode really hard for 68 miles to Ottumwa, IA. I ended up not making a single stop and got stuck in several rain and thundershowers along the way. The worst of which was when I actually arrived in town. Torrential downpours filled the streets with so much water that I was riding through a consistent 1/2 to 1 foot of water.

Along the way I had lost sight of Matt. I knew I'd meet up with him as we planned to ride to Ottumwa and rest for the night. When I got there and found shelter I turned my phone on and got a message from him, but it was from that morning. He said that he had stopped and that he was wondering where I was. I called him back and left him a message that I was in Ottumwa. That I had ridden right through the day, and where I was. I didn't hear from him... That night Julia arrived a day early, with Lucy!

I took a hard look at my schedule. And made a tough call. I decided that I would ride with Julia until the point where I was back on schedule so that I can make the family party that my mom has planned for September 2, and say goodbye to my sister who leaves for school the next day. The decision came from one simple fact for me. I'm not doing this to prove anything to myself, or to prove to anyone else that I'm capable. I'm doing this to raise awareness for Mental Health Parity Legislation, and to have an amazing adventure. I worried that I was some how compromising the ride, but in fact I'm just going to make it more possible that I can reach my destination. It's regrettable that Matt didn't call me back. I would have liked to talk to him prior to leaving. I tried him a couple times tonight, but his phone is still off.