Early in the ride, Allan thought he had a flat tire on his "rocket" a velomobile fully-faired recumbent, so after assuring us he was perfectly capable of fixing the flat without help, we continued on down the road. We stopped a few miles later for a soda, leaving our bikes visible in case Allan came by. Greg called him on the phone and learned that the problem was actually a suspension failure so Allan flagged down a passing pickup truck to take him back to the house to figure out what to do.
The Adventure Cycling TransAmerica route was their very first one from back when they were called BikeCentennial to celebrate America's bicentennial in 1976. On this part of the route, the state has erected "Bicycle Route 76" signs, which can be very helpful at times.
It was hot again today, which made the many short, but steep, hills seem much harder. None of the climbs were long but we ended up with over 2900 feet of climbing.
There is a big rodeo going on in the fairgrounds/city park tonight, which would make camping difficult. So we decided to hotel it instead. Greg finally got to swim in a pool.
Bikes are not the only vehicles that share the road.
I couldn't figure out why they have fields full of giant, shrink-wrapped shredded wheat.
We stopped for lunch at a Subway in Hartville. Greg got to talking with a gentleman in the restaurant who ended up insisting on paying for our lunches. That's the second time this trip that something like that has happened.
We hadn't planned to do almost 70 miles today. The Adventure Cycling map says you can camp behind the convenience store in Bendavis, a wide spot in the road less than 50 miles from Marshfield. But when we got to Bendavis the store was closed, no doubt due to the 4th of July holiday. As we were standing in the parking lot deciding what to do, a guy pulled up in a pickup truck. Normally you would not expect an angel to be in the form of a middle-aged guy with a big pot belly and a beard, but he had a cooler in the back of the truck and gave us each an ice-cold Gatorade and bottle of water.
There was a Pepsi machine outside the store. It took our money but didn't give us anything to drink. There was a spigot and a hose in front of the store so we each doused our heads to cool off. The water smelled kind of rusty so we didn't want to put it in our water bottles. But there was also a big refrigerated cooler out front with bags of ice inside. So we opened a bag and filled all the wide-mouthed containers we had. We didn't know how much a bag of ice was worth but we left $2 inside the cooler.
So we rode the additional 18 miles to Houston. By then it was getting a bit cooler and we were drinking ice water, so it wasn't too bad. We are in the Lazy L motel in Houston. The only restaurants in town that are open on July 4 are fast food so we had dinner at the Taco Bell next door.
I think it was in Summerville, where we stopped in a store to get something to drink, that a guy Greg got talking with bought him a bottle of peppermint oil, supposedly good for sore muscles and lots of other things. People keep going out of their way to be kind.
We're camped at the Arrowhead Campground, in a patch of grass behind the showers/toilets.
We pitched our tents and headed straight for the river. We just went in wearing our cycling clothes. The water temperature was just right.
Then we took our showers ($1 for 5 minutes of cold water) and walked the few blocks into town for dinner. It was still hot when we went to bed.
At least the scenery is beautiful.
Greg was driven crazy by the bugs flying around his head at each stop.
We're staying at the cyclists' hostel in Ellington. It's not as large or elegant at the one at Ash Grove but it has an air conditioner, bathroom, shower and a small fridge.
We had dinner at Sosa's pizza parlour. I took my laptop along hoping they would have WiFi and ended up leaving it there. I'll have to retrieve it tomorrow morning.
There was a long 7% grade out of Ellington, but the climbing was not as bad as yesteray. It also helped that the weather was cooler.
But there were still Hills.
We couldn't find any available campsites at Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park, but the camp host found us an RV site whose occupant left a day early. They had WiFi at the camp store so I could check my email for the first time in a couple days. There is no cell phone coverage however.
The father from the campsite next door came over to talk about bicycle touring and then Greg went over to their site to perform some of his magic tricks to universal amazement.
It was nice and cool in the evening, which made for much more comfortable sleeping in the tent. I made chicken noodle casserole with my brand-new Whisperlite stove. I found a can of mushroom soup at the camp store to add to the recipe.
There is a wonderful cyclists' hostel in Farmington housed in an old jail building.
It is beautiful inside with several bedrooms, a full kitchen, a laundry room, a computer connected to the Internet, a living room with leather sofas and TV, air conditioning, etc. The hostel is on the second floor via an outside stairway.
There's just one problem: The only place you can park your bike is an unguarded bike rack outside.
My $6500 touring bike is not only expensive, it is basically irreplaceable. I am 6 feet 7 inches tall and cannot just go to a bike shop and buy an off-the shelf bike. That's why I have a custom-made frame. The last I checked, the framebuilder had nearly a year-long waiting list. If my bike were stolen it would be a very big deal. I refuse to leave it outside in the middle of the city where I can't keep an eye on it.
So we are staying at a Super 8 motel tonight.
My old buddy Don from the 2005 Adventure Cycling Northern Tier tour and his partner Patsy drove to the hotel to say hi. Don and I had ridden together most days on that tour. We hope to spend some more time tomorrow during our rest day.
I also bought a new rear tire. The old one was embarassingly worn out. I need to check it more often. I also got a Third Eye bar-end mirror to replace the other brand I don't like and a new pair of shorts to replace the pair that got torn by the loose rivet on the old Brooks saddle.
The owner loaned me his mountain bike to get back to the hotel while he was working on my bike. I felt like a circus clown riding a kids bike. (I'm 6 ft 7 in tall, almost a foot more than the owner.)
After I retrieved the bike around noon, Don drove up from his home in Frederick, about 15 miles away. We had lunch in a Steak and Shake restaurant and then he drove us to St. Louis to visit the arch.
They had just completed a major renovation of the arch visitor center just a few days before. This photo is from inside the museum.
We rode up to the top of the arch and looked out the down-facing windows.
We had dinner at Square One brew pub. When we walked in, we saw Greg go over and hug a couple on the far side of the room. Brian is an old high school buddy of his from Arizona. Greg tried to make it look like a random encounter, but we were suspicious when he kept mentioning Square One as a possible dinner location. He almost got away with it. :=)
After a long dinner of food, drink and converrsation we headed back to Farmington. We stopped at a Dairy Queen on the way to make sure we were fueled for tomorrow's ride.
Last updated July 14, 2018