DAY 37 JULY 25, 2010

Home At Last, Thank God We're Home At Last! 3137 miles!!!! What a long strange trip it's been, to quote The Grateful Dead. We flew out to Portland, Oregon with hopes of having a tailwind to assist us in crossing the country west to east. It is a very common practice for those cyclists committed to a cross country bicycle trip to seek out the helpful tailwind. It was frustrating and bizarre to have only one day with tailwinds to assist in the pedaling of our bicycles across the USA. Thirty six out of 37 days we had a headwind or crosswind. It could have ruined our trip, but our time together as a couple was wonderful and a time of bonding with one another. The trip definitely brought us closer together as a couple and gave us "time alone" to re energize our relationship. We have devoted the last 15 years to our children and have done little for ourselves or our relationship during these years.

We met many wonderful people on this trip with too many to mention all their names. Thank you though, to all those people that made an impact on our trip and gave us memories that will last a lifetime. The world we live in seems to dwell on the negative and news seems to only report the bad. We experienced an America that is friendly, helpful, kind and compassionate. We are definitely in difficult times but people are still thankful for what they have and were willing to give and share even in these economically troubled times. God Bless America!

Thanks to all the people that followed our blog and adventures. We are both ready for school to start. Deb will be at Maude Saunders in DFS. I on the other hand will be working as an advocate for Exceptional Education Students (ESE). I will see to it that the district upholds the law and meets the goals and objectives of every student. Parents can contact me @ brandinshost@hotmail.com

DAY 36 JULY 24, 2010

We have been concerned about Tropical Storm Bonnie and where she is headed. We had soaking showers and rain this morning but it was a blessing to cool the temperatures from 100 to 77 degrees. It is inconceivable to us that we have had 1 full day of a tailwind to assist us on this trip. Frustrating? YES. On the outskirts of the charming little town of
Mentone, Alabama, the West Fork of the Little River plunges off a 100-foot Lookout Mountain cliff to create, what many people claim, one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the South.

DeSoto Falls - named for Spanish explorer
Hernando de Soto - is part of DeSoto State
Park and is one of the tallest and most
visited waterfalls in Alabama.

DAY 35 July 23, 2010

We have put on major miles in the past several days. We had survived our time in Mississippi and now we're heading into the homestretch. For those of you that have been reading this Blog, you know that I have not been short on words when writing, adding to the Blog. Yesterday, I was totally fed up and frustrated with Mississippi. We had belligerent store owners, disrespectful drivers, rude people and roads unsafe for cyclists(even the bicycle paths, like in the picture were unsafe. Often times ending with NO shoulder to ride on). Everyone was in a hurry and really not going anywhere. I decided to write very little yesterday and process what to say. I am not going to elaborate on DAY 33 at all. It is over but not forgotten.

The picture of the Black River is where U.S.Grant defeated the Confederate army to make his way to Vicksburg, MS and capture 9,000 Confederate soldiers after a siege of the city for 44days. The scenery remains agricultural into Alabama. We are avoiding all large cities to stay clear of major traffic areas.

The CDC ranks Alabama as the 2nd heaviest state with 30.3 % of the population having a BMI of over 30. The state has decided to give state employees a lose weight or pay ultimatum. The state employees (~40,000) have a year to lose weight or start paying $25 a month toward their usually free plan. The Alabama program will go by the body mass index chart — anyone with a BMI over 35 will be charged.

We are both anxious to get to Home Sweet Home vs. Sweet Home Alabama!

DAY 34 JULY 22, 2010

We have had two big ride days through Mississippi (over 100 miles for each of the days). The heat is relentless! We are both exhausted and are retiring early. I will update the Blog during the day on Friday.

DAY 33 July 21, 2010

Hot, Hot, Hot. The three H's. We began early this morning to beat the heat but it was 95 degrees by 10:30 in the morning. My bicycle thermometer and a bank thermometer both read 109 degrees. It is difficult to maintain an appetite when you consume so much liquid. Our only savior is that the landscape is very flat and there is little climbing to do. Along with cotton fields, we saw some pretty bayou areas with cypress trees growing out of the swampy water. Farm raised Catfish is big business. There were ponds all along the highway with grain silos for fish food. We had planned to ride into Jackson, MS today but the heat dictated our every move. We are in Yazoo City, MS. We had read a month ago that Mississippi was number 48 out of 50 states in being bicycle friendly. Let me just say, I do not want to cycle in #49 or #50!! We both had several close class with cars pushing us to the limit of the shoulder and a few forced us off the road. We did not have an incident with vehicles our first 2700miles and in two days we have had at least 15 close calls. It is very troubling and we looking for remote back roads to get us through the state in the quickest fashion. A couple other facts about Mississippi; Out of 50 states and the District of Columbia, Mississippi came in at No. 51. Yes, even the folks in Washington, thought to have the nation's worst public schools, ranked ahead of Mississippi. Mind you, D.C. came in at No. 50, an embarrassment that doesn't stop its residents from clamoring for statehood. Half of them probably can't even spell statehood. But back to our Mississippi friends and their passion for the Confederate battle flag.

It's fitting that Mississippians chose to keep the emblem. A symbol representing a country, the Confederate States of America, that felt a certain pride in keeping its population ignorant should be on the flag of the country's most ignorant state.

This intrigued me so much, I needed to look at he rest of the Confederate States to see if there was a correlation. The states that formed the old Confederacy did not do much better. None of those 10 states finished in the top 35. The highest was Texas at 35, Florida at 38, North Carolina at 40, Arkansas at 42 and then Nos. 45 through 49 were Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Louisiana, respectively. "The more education a person receives, the more they realize that they did not know very much"! (Brandin C. Shost)

O.K. That is off my chest! Here are some less controversial facts

Mississippi was the 20th state in the USA; it became a state on December 10, 1817 .
State Abbreviation - MS
State Capital - Jackson
Largest City - Jackson
Area - 48,434 square miles [Mississippi is the 32nd biggest state in the USA]
Population - 2,844,658 (as of 2010) [Mississippi is the 31st most populous state in the USA]
Name for Residents - Mississippians
Major Industries - farming (cotton, corn, soybeans, rice), oil, textiles, electronic equipment, transprtation equipment, fishing

Major Rivers - Mississippi River, Big Black River, Pearl River, Yazoo River
Highest Point - Woodall Mountain - 806 feet (245 m) above sea level

DAY 32 July 20, 2010

We were up early to beat the heat. It was 82 degrees at 7 a.m. We headed toward the Mississippi River and the new bridge spanning the Mississippi River. We were able to ride our bicycles over the 2 mile bridge before anyone else has had the opportunity to ride on it (opening to cars August 15th). We planned to stop at the casino on the bank of the Mississippi River in Mississippi. We pedaled 22 miles and decided to visit the casino to cool off. I was able to win 30 dollars in just a few minutes and we were cooled down and ready to go when we met Charlotte. She is the casino director and was curious about our bicycles. We told her about our bicycle adventure and she asked us to stay for lunch on her eating from an enormous buffet. It was an amazing meal with a savings of 21 dollars per person. We road away with extra money and a full belly! It was 12:00 when we pedaled away so we were riding during the hottest part of the day. 103 degrees! We only road for 4 more hours and stopped in Indianola, MS.

DAY 31 JULY 19, 2010

We had hoped to get out of Arkansas today but a strong headwind kept up from getting big miles. We made it to Lake Village from Pine Bluff, some 82 hard earned miles. It was very hot, near 100 degrees again. Tomorrow will be hotter. We are 20 miles from Mississippi. There is not a lot to see on this side of Arkansas except soy bean and cotton fields. The combine showed in the picture costs 255,000 dollars. You need to harvest 15,333 acres to pay for itself! We needed to stop several times today to go inside convenience and grocery stores to cool off. One of the grocery store managers asked about our trip and when we explained our undertaking he told us to help ourselves to whatever we wanted to drink, on the house! We did not want to take advantage of his offer so we settled for a gallon of chocolate milk and proceeded to drink it right there on the spot. We went out to dinner tonight and met Calvin and Mary at the restaurant and we talked the entire time we were there. Great people and they boosted our egos to continue riding for one more day. I had difficulties loading pictures tonight. Click on each image to view clearly.

Arkansas possesses a wide variety of minerals, with annual production valued in excess of $1,000,000,000. Petroleum, natural gas, and bromine, in that order, are the top three minerals produced. Arkansas leads the nation in production of bauxite, providing over 80% of this valuable ore from which aluminum is made. There are 2.4 million people in Arkansas and 600,000 acres of lakes with 6 national parks. It ranks 24th in overall size. Elevation varies from 2700 ft in the Western Ozarks to 55 feet at the Mississippi River. Arkansas has the only diamond mine in the world that is open to the public!

DAY 30 JULY 18, 2010

DAY 30!!!!!Pine Bluff Arkansas---2445 miles to Portland, Oregon on bicycle. 699 miles to Freeport, Florida. For the first 25 days everyone we met thought that Florida was so far away and we would have a difficult time completing this ride. Now we are feeling that it is just around, over and down the next stretch of road. Also, people were saying that Florida was sooo far away but now, Portland is a long way from here. I guess I could have said; "we are getting closer to home everyday! It's not the heat, it's the humidity. Bologna! It was humid today but the heat was a killer. It was 111 degrees at 1:00pm and still at 4:30pm it was 102. By the way, Arkansas is not flat. It is a state with the Ozark Mts. to the west and the rolling hills throughout. We went through many small towns today. They all looked the same; old, poor, run down, businesses closed but they all had many Baptist Churches. The pictures today reflect the heat, our views of an alligator river, Ozark Mts. and us and where we are. Pine Bluff is a gang infested city and the curfews are strongly enforced to keep kids off the streets. We are planning for an early start to close in on the Mississippi River.

Day 29 July 17, 2010

We are in Arkansas. The wind finally moved us along in good fashion. We are in Little Rock after some serious miles! We just went over 2180 miles. The Arkansas River has been meandering across our trail for hundreds of miles.

The Arkansas River(pictured above) is 1,450 mi long, originating in the Rocky Mts., central Colo., and flowing generally SE across the plains to the Mississippi River, In SE Ark.the river drains 160,500 sq miles. It is the chief waterway for the state of Arkansas, where it drains a broad valley. The upper course of the Arkansas River has many rapids and flows through Royal Gorge, one of the deepest canyons in the United States. More than 25 dams on the river provide flood control, power, and irrigation. During the warm months, because of its extensive use for irrigation, the middle course of the Arkansas is reduced to a trickle. We especially saw this in central Kansas where the river bed was basically dry. Without irrigation, people in our country would starve.

Our first stop in Little Rock was the Farmer's Market. We had freshly baked Biallies and ripe peaches.

The rusted train bridge will become part of a 50 mile bicycle route around Little Rock. Bill Clinton helped orchestrate 100,000 dollars to renovate and convert it into a bicycle bridge.

We went to the Clinton Presidential Library and the state capitol before we packed up to head out of town.

DAY 28 July 16, 2010

We took a day off from riding and rented a car to drive to Kansas City, Missouri to see the Royals play baseball against Oakland Athletics. We rode to the airport and rented a Santa Fe Hyundai to put our bicycles and gear in to head 188 miles north to KC. We literally purchased the last two tickets for the game! They did have 480 standing room tickets but we bought the last two seats!!!!!

Day 27 July 15, 2010

Hutchinson to Wichita. Today we saw corn, corn and more corn. We got up at 5:00 to begin our trip to Wichita. A strong storm came through over night to cool things down and remain cloudy. It was a fifty mile trek. We wanted to get into a large city to restock ourselves with a couple new tires, tubes and CO2 cartridges to pump up our tires. The cartridges are a marvelous discovery to rapidly pump up the tires, seconds vs. 10-15 minutes and a lot of arm energy. My rear tire is about to peel off like a retread tire on a semi truck. We rode into Wichita at 1:30 and very tired. We had directions to the bicycle shop and we were on our way. The woman at the store told us 2-3 miles to get there. Guess again Miss Geographer, 11 miles! We picked up two new tires for my bike and replaced the rear tire while at the shop. The new tires are called, Armadillo tires. The bike store said they will not get flat for the rest of our trip home. We will see. We cycled by the home headquarters and factory for the famous Cessna airplane company. Wichita has a population of 375,000 people making it the 51st largest city in America and the largest city in Kansas. The name Wichita means, "town with winds out of the south". It means "difficult, frustrating city to ride into" to cyclists. Deb took a short break with the temps above 100 degrees to eat an ice cream. We have been drinking so much water our appetites are poor. Every stop we make, we have been drinking a lot of whole milk, either regular or chocolate. No need to worry about putting on pounds. We just came back from having a huge homecooked meal at a diner. We spoke with the manager about our trip during the meal for five minutes. When we were ready to pay for the bill, the waiter said that the meal was on the house. We have met a lot of very generous people on this trip.

Day 26 JULY 14, 2010

HOT AND HUMID!!! 104 degrees! We were cycling from Dodge City and heading east. We were up at 6:30 to get riding before the southerly winds kicked up. We have heard from five or six cyclist here in Kansas that many people who encounter the "wicked winds" of Kansas, give up their cross country goal. There is certainly a lot of psychology that goes into conquering the winds of Kansas. We were never made aware of them but we learned fast how they can play games with your head and demoralize a person. We have had true tailwinds 2 of our 26 days of cycling. We were outside Hutchinson, KS when we came across this huge 5000 acre windmill farm. If you cannot read the photo, these windmills can produce enough energy to power 33,000 homes each year. When we cycled into Hutchinson, KS we met a wonderful family who offered us a house to ourselves that they own. Jennifer and Dan (Randall, Brizendine). We are very thankful to them for their thoughtful consideration in putting up two exhausted cyclists.