Day 21: T Minus 2 Days!

Greetings to you from our second-to-last day of the bike tour!  Yikes--it's almost over!

Two days ago we were at Kyle's site.  It was Jon Rudnicki's birthday, so we took him out to eat and made him feel like a king...by making him a "Miara" (tiara for a man) and showering him with confetti (wrappers from all the bon-bons we ate).  Lookin' good, Jon!

The next morning, we said goodbye to new PCV, Shannon, and headed out.  It was about a 77 km ride and all paved roads.  It would have been an "easy" day, except that it was SO hilly.  We are also inching into mini-hot season, so it was HOT.  HOT + HILLY = HARD DAY.

Jane Lindberg's site is along the road, so we stopped in to say hello.  She is newly back from Americaland and not interested in biking with us (WHAT?!  you mean you don't get stoked about biking nearly 80 km up hills in sweltering heat?  What's wrong with you?)

We arrived at Gwen Armstrong's site around 10:30 AM.  We met her, Emily Hooker, and Austin Swift at a maquee for a late brunch before heading off to her house (she has more moringa in her courtyard than I've seen in some moringa gardens--yay, Gwen).  She promptly cooked us hoe cakes (for those of you NOT from the golden south, those are like pancakes made out of corn flour).  Again, yay, Gwen.  We had a yoga party on her porch/in her front yard, making sure we didn't trample her moringa.

What is really exciting about Gwen's house is that she has electricity and internet.  She also has the latest Glee and Trueblood episodes.  Yup!  We all had a viewing of the season premier of Glee while enjoying some local dolo...

Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to our third driver, Vincent.  :(  He was sick with the palu for most of the trip, but was still a trooper--always willing to help us out.

Dinner that night in the marche was a grand affair--I think there were 13 of us, total--with bags of salad and patats, village bread, and whole chickens.  We consumed 11 chickens between us!

We left early this morning, as we had a 90 km bike ride to do, and...like I said, mini-hot season.  Brutal.  Fortunately, there are lots of fun distractions along any given route, when you're with such a fun-loving crew as us. :)  For instance, we passed a village named "Bozo."  Who could resist?

We stopped along the way to say hello to new PCV Matthew Courtney.  He had Cool-Aid for everyone when we rolled in...and, by the way, has a really cool site.  The alimentation we went into had hardware supplies, Benjamin Franklin belts, fruit juices, MARKERS, and just about every other thing you can think of.

 
We pulled into Julie Lishansky's site around 11 AM, greeted the chef du village, and then headed to the marche to eat.  Now we're waiting to start the afternoon festivities, which should include: local officials, traditional dancing, a balafon troupe, and dolo.  Emily Forsyth-Queen just showed up to fete with us, too.  Yay!

Tomorrow is our LAST ride.  We'll be riding into Leo, where Marita has organized a big reception and party for us.

Peace!