Update #21 - July 19th, 2001
Lebanon, MO - 4640 miles

The ride from Manhattan, KS to Lebanon, MO has been a slow one with short days. This has been because of the high heat. For the past three days, temperatures in the afternoon have been above ninety degrees Fahrenheit with heat indexes creeping up to one hundred five degrees. Along with this, pavement temperatures have been close to one hundred forty degrees Fahrenheit. This is basically the first paragraph of the last update but with a few modifications.

The terraign has had its ups and downs especially since I've been riding through the Ozarks the last four days. At least, I'm getting strong enough in my legs to stay on the bike and get up most of the hills. Some of the hills have had upgrades over a mile long. I wish that I would have more than 24 speeds to use some days.

The basic problem has been the high heat. I've had to cut down the distances traveled each day considerably traveling most of the distances in the morning. Today (July 19th), I got on the road before 7 a.m. to avoid the high afternoon heat but it was in the eighties before 10 a.m. I've been drinking lots and lots of water. I've also sweated a lot because of the high humidity. Yesterday when I finally stopped for the day in the small town of Buffalo, I was amazed that every piece of clothing that I had including my socks were soaking wet. I must have lost 19 pounds this year.

It is lucky for me that I only need to ride less than 40 miles per day the next 3 or 4 days since there are a lot of Habitat affiliates in the area. I've been able to contact since 1996, 1184 affiliates out of the 1600 affiliates in the United States. I should be riding through the capitol of Missouri, Jefferson City, on Monday. From there, I'll be riding up to Hannibol, Missouri and then crossing the Mississippi River at Quincy, Illinois. I hope to be riding through the Chicago area in a couple of weeks.