Leoti to Scott City

25 miles. We were chased by a coyote.

Yesterday, we napped on and off all afternoon in a basement classroom of United Methodist Church in Leoti. We had decided to sleep all day, and ride all night. Mike, an employee of the church, invited McKinley and I to dinner, post nap. We happily accepted his offer and made our way over to his home once we gathered ourselves.

We were greeted by Mike, his daughter Beth, and her not-so-shy 8 year old daughter, Madison; Everett, her 5 year old, wasn't too keen on visiting with us...yet.

Mike and Beth prepared a fabulous one-dish taco meal that was outstanding; I ate 3 helpings, plus all the side dishes.

After dinner, Madison brought us downstairs to their play room to watch a movie in their newly-constructed fort of blankets and pillows. It was full of pinks and purples, and ultra cozy. We all chose Monsters Inc and settled in under the fort.

Well, Everett decided it was time to warm up and hang out with his new friends. He wedged himself between McKinley and I and giggled his heart out, while Madison requested Beth to deliver us 4 root beer floats on trays; she said, "Mom, could you bring down root beer floats on a tray, and 2 for the girls?" What a little comic!

After the movie, we packed up and left. The kids were disappointed we were leaving, but it was their bed time and we had to make some miles. After taking a huge interest in McKinley's squeaky horn and posing for photos, Madison and Everett gave us the best send-off we've had yet; Madison blew a string of bubbles for us to ride through, and we rang our bells and horns for as long as we could see them. I think they loved it.

We loved our dinner and movie date, it will surely be difficult to top that one.

Night riding was rather unsuccessful. We rode 25 miles to the next town, and I could barely keep my eyes open. Also, we had been chased by an unknown animal; we couldn't see it since our lights point forward, but we heard it running at us and making an odd barky, yippie, howly noise. Eventually, he dropped off and we just kept pedaling. Once we arrived in town, Ted, a police officer, stopped to talk to us. When we described the noise, he confirmed it to be a coyote. So that just upped our badass level, we got chased by a freaking coyote! And that's the end of our night riding career.

Here's hoping this heat wave breaks.