Saturday, July 29, 2006

good days and bad days


sometimes good days and bad days happen in the same day. yesterday we left from the dollhouse b and b in rhineland,mo. amanda ate mini muffins till she couldn't eat any more then we left for our 65 mile ride to saint charles. shortly after our departure, we realized the Katy trail we were on had massive spider webs strewn across the path with giant spiders in the middle of each one. amanda got oogled out so we hopped on the road that ran alongside the trail. after about two and a half miles on the road these two crazed dogs started running after us full speed ahead. abby yelled at them and told them to go home but it wasn't really working so she flipped back down the opposite direction as fast as possible. amanda decided to get off her bike and walk, trying to appease the dogs but it didn't really work. they kept after her and she got bit on the calf. fortunately it didn't break the skin so we didn't have to worry about some weird dog disease. so we rode back to the katy trail and after about 15 minutes amanda crashed through one of the webs and got a giant spider on her which freaked her out but at least it didn't bite her. This was a hard day for Amanda. She was surrounded by spiders, attacked by dogs, swimming in a humid hell, AND she was on her period!
we rode the rest of the way to saint charles as 65 miles became 70 and a nice shady trail turned into a blazing hot humidity bath.

after the ride we had just enough time to go to a costume shop and take a shower. then we cruised over to our gig at the police station turned art space, Mad Art Gallery. what a cool place. they even have the cell blocks in tact.
amanda had abby locked away for good while gangster greg was cornered by sheriff boo

the show was a blast. there was a fun opening group called maid rite whose music was a jamboree sensation. we had a guest saw player named Lindy and some wonderful karaoke performers. after the show there were fire eaters ouside on the patio with cool art bikes made to look like frogs, ducks, and camels. unfortunately we didn't get back to the hotel until 1am.

today we left way too late for comfort. a 98 degree day plus a hell of a lot of moisture in the air. we had three guest riders, roger, adam, and phil. roger led us across the bridge to illinois and the start of our route 66 to chicago. adam and phil rode with us all the way to litchfieild.

on the way phil got two flats. some really nice people let us come into their house and cool off in the AC while he fixed his flats in the shade. they offered us ice cold drinks and didn't seem to mind that we were dirty and wet. after the flats got fixed we were out in the heat of the day. abby thought she wasn't gonna make it all the way till we pulled into a gas station somewhere and poured ice water over her head. then amanda came up with a brilliant new invention called the ice burrito which saved our butts for the rest of the ride! it kept us cool and rejuvenated for the last hour. we were so rejuved that we laughed about her invention for 45 minutes. abby almost fell off her bike laughing. everyone will want one of these hot new items.
here is a preview


we missed our friend Jesca Hoop today and riding through the corn, we kept singing her songs.

go to www.jescahoop.com to hear the music for yourself. abby did the drawing on the homepage.