Today was another sunny, beautiful day of rolling hills in the countryside. All ups or downs, with nothing in between. We've noticed a whole lot more unleashed dogs here in Missouri than elsewhere-- dogs that will bark at us, run after us, and sometimes look like they want to bite us. At those times, Ed's my knight in shining baby blue spandex, barking at dogs in an alpha-canine voice to scare them off. *Sigh* My hero. We saw some really great sheep-guarding dogs that looked exactly like the sheep they were guarding until they ran up to the fence and barked at us. Still, they were great looking dogs, and did their jobs very well.
I've gotten a few flat tires on this trip-- 6 in all, I think. I used to be pretty quick at changing flats when I was guiding, but since I met Ed, he changes all my flats for me, and my skills have gone downhill. In the month or so before this trip started, I've insisted on doing it all myself, since who can tell if it'll happen when he's not around? I needed to be self-sufficient again. I've changed all of my flats on this trip, and most times Ed will be there, just keeping me company while I do it. Some of our fellow travellers, mostly older men, have remarked on the fact that he's letting his woman do the dirty work. We're pretty amused by that, since at this point I can probably change a tire faster than most of them =)
We've started counting down the days till this whole adventure is over. Our bodies have started complaining in various ways. For example, today Ed's knee started acting up, and he needed some attention from one of our massage therapists, Dana, who did some interesting work on him at a rest stop-- which I, of course, captured for you all to see. Here's another woman making my husband feel better (she's very good at what she does):
Tomorrow we hit the flat plains of Missouri, and we hope the winds will be on our side.
