Shirt I made looks like pajama top. Can't get away with it because the pattern just says Peace Pajamas, Stacy told me. (There are peace signs all over it.) But I had to have it. I was obsessed with the fabric, with what it was saying to me—so '70s plus the sentiment of the peace signs and the hallucinogenic flowers. It was the end of the bolt with not enough for sleeves. I paired it with the pink flannel and sewed the shirt using my Russian shirt pattern from Folkwear. I can call it a dreamtime shirt. Maybe I should make a pair of pink pants to complete the pajama look. The hat is a ski hat and already seen at NAPO gatherings, but this was the first time I wore it to one of our parties. It completes the level of chroma saturation and tribal chief look I was going for. Dave told me there's a book on the topic of chromophobia about how Westerners have a fear of color. Hadn't heard it put that way; Western fashion has another take on it and basically considers loud colors tacky or at best ethnic. Class probably also factors in. A Southern woman told me that bright pink, much like this pink, was known as "nigger pink" in her day. In my day it was called Siamese pink, so my mother told me and I wore it proudly.

Today started pretty early as Peg dropped Ollie and I off along Hwy 6 on her way to work a bit after 7 this morning. After a hot chai and a chat with Nathan, of The New Pioneer (Iowa City's local food co-op), we hit the road. V-e-r-y S-l-o-w-l-y. We're talking 40mph headwinds, according to the weather report I heard after the fact. After 5 hours of going 4mph and being nearly blown over multiple times, Ollie and I decided to call it a day. We're ahead of schedule, for a change, so the delay, while exhausting, is not too serious. 25 miles today, and some of the toughest cycling to date. Time to get a motel room (#5 of the trip), some food (in retrospect, I'm not sure I'd recommend the local specialty: fried green beans), and peel off the day's bike gear (including my new wool legwarmers and hat from Lindsey: love them). The best part of today happened about an hour ago: getting out of a hot bath and into my flannel pajama pants. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry