We started our morning with a ripe 5 AM wake up and a spicy 6:15 AM departure with mother nature blessing us with a disgusting headwind that tested our patience and stained us for 15 miles. Henry got “extreme poison ivy” and went to the doctor but got it sorted out. As the sun came out our helmet, sock, and bib tan lines darkened and we were blessed with a seemingly infinite amount of Monotonous loops of rolling hills. The mid west that was supposed to flat somehow is more straining than our largest passes. After spending our entire day in the middle of nowhere as we seemingly do everyday now, we ate lunch and took siestas in the comfy recliners at a gas station at another in the middle of nowhere spot. As we continued in the never ending inferno we were stalled by a train that was dropping off trains for grain. In a surprising turn of events we were blessed with a tail wind that felt angelic and as if our legs had never ending strength AND a pastor came out into the street to give us all water. We later arrived at 1880 town where there were goats roaming freely around the gas station and ate a splendid peach cobbler, strawberry rhubarb, and banana cream pie. The grueling heat continued and so did the never ending rollers, we knocked out a monotonous and hellish loop of 80 miles. At our stealth campsite we played at the playground where Megan introduced us to new music – Spinning Away by John Cale and Brian Eno. We ate fantastically seasoned sloppy joes and called it a day.