The next morning, just as I started to get out of the city and into a rural area, two dogs began chasing me. I had to round a corner, and with the loss of speed, they easily caught up with me. I shouted “No!” but it didn’t work. I felt a tug a few feet after the corner, and realized that one of the dogs had latched onto my pannier. I dragged it for a few feet, then it let go. When I was out of range, I inspected the tooth and saliva marks on my bag. Perhaps I should have whacked the dog with my pump.

Missouri looked like a different world. Soon after I crossed the border, everything started to look like a misty Amazon jungle. Plants grew with a passion in the humidity.

The day ended in Golden City, Missouri. By this time, I was getting very lazy about cooking, so looked for my favorite kind of restaurant – “All You Can Eat.” There were several. I picked my dining spot by looking at their air conditioners. One of the air conditioners was dripping furiously. That was my restaurant. I wanted the restaurant whose air conditioner was working so well that it pulled streams of water out of the air.

I camped in the city park. There was even a shower there, which turned out to be not as bad as it first looked. The shower was a concrete building made especially for the 1976 bike ride. The level of workmanship was about what I could have done at home. I found a small bar of soap on the floor, and used that to wash with. First, I used pure hot, to burn away the itching, then pure cold, to prepare myself for the hot evening. After showering, while still damp, I rubbed some jungle juice into my arms and neck. A minute later, I felt an incredible sensation of heat everywhere I had put the repellent. It was like sunburn! I sweated profusely, and couldn’t cool off. I went outside, and felt better after a while.

it’s alarming, being hot and not able to cool off.