Day27

(This is cool if you like lots of data! It may take a few seconds to load but you can hit play and time compress our ride. )

DAILY REPORT: The weatherman predicted a good day for biking. The high 80's and the winds from the SW.

During dinner last night we had our Navigation meeting and discussed our ride today. We will be crossing the state line into Missouri early in the morning and then there will be a fair number of hills. In fact it would be more like one continuous roller coaster of hills. Should be a fun day of riding. This will be the most "ups and downs" we have done since we left Silverdale. We will be following the TransAmerica Bike route again beginning today.

We had a quick breakfast at Super 8 and were off riding the earlier morning streets of Pittsburg. It was nice and quite. As soon as we left town we crossed into Missouri and were in farm country. We spent the first 30 miles riding along rows and rows of corn. We had a unique opportunity to watch a crop duster fly over the corn and spray some type of herbicide. He was just skimming over the corn's tassel. It was neat to watch. Then at the last moment we would pull up and just clear the trees at the edge of the corn field. Looks like a fun job!!

While biking the back roads we had our first detour of our trip. Fortunately it ultimately didn't effect our over all route. A quick check on the Blackberry Google maps confirmed we were sill on track and didn't add any mileage to our trip. That is a big concern when you already know you will be biking 100+ miles that day.

We stopped for lunch at a small little town of Everton MO. Skip had found a nice park. It had taken him a while to find the town. Turns out that Garmin didn't have the town in it's data base. Go figure.

The afternoon temps had increased significantly and so did the hills. They (hills)

actually were a lot of fun. There were a few lactic acid burners but nothing too bad. Everyone of those peaks in the above graph was a hill....quite a few hills you might say!! We found that the Missouri drivers are very courteous. They would stay behind you until they were absolutely sure there was no traffic coming and then carefully pass you. It was nice.

One of the small towns we passed through was Ash Grove. It's claim to fame is that Nathan Boone, son of Daniel Boone live there. We passed by the old homestead but didn't want to bike down the 3/4 mile gravel driveway.

We arrived in Marshville to find Skip sitting in Taco Bell waiting for us. In fact I believe

he said he was on his 14th iced tea. We weren't too, too late; it was only 6 PM. We decided to have dinner there at Taco Bell (Thanks Peter!!) It turns out that our hotel was going to be in a town 15 mile south - Seymour. I wasn't going to be able to convince the boys for an other hour ride, so we loaded up the bikes in the trailer and headed off.

We are staying at the Seymour Country Inn. Dexter the owner is a WWII and Vietnam vet and gave a very nice discount on our two night say. Go Navy!! Thanks much!!

We have a welcomed and much needed rest day tomorrow. Over the last six days the boys have ridden over 625 miles. Pretty impressive!! Next week the mileage will drop off a little to account for all the climbing we will be doing through the Ozark Mountains.

YOU DON'T SAY:

John - while riding the back road and seeing our 4th or 5th dead armadillo "How come we don't see any of these during the day? And aren't these just supposed to be in Texas?"

James - "Based on the number of hills; I'm not looking forward to today's ride!"

Skip - while talking to Skip on the phone, "David we have a change in schedule. I just plugged in the hotel address in the GPS and it doesn't look like we will be in Marshville tonight." Hmmm.......

One of the young ladies we met while riding - "Hey can you tell the boys we think they are HOT!!"

DID I REALLY DO THAT?:

While sitting in Taco Bell Skip was talking w/ the folks in the booth next to us and mentioned that "these two young men are Eagle Scouts." James piped up "There are three young Eagle Scouts here." Skip gave James an inquisitive look. And James replied "You didn't see my Dad riding today; but he was riding like he was in his 20's!" [That's my son; he'll go far in life!!]

PHOTOS OF THE DAY
Locomotive 488 was built July 1906 in Pittsburgh, PA. In 1925 it underwent major changes in Pittsburg, KS and changed to Locomotive 1023. Track was laid and locomotive was installed n Schlanger Park on Sept 17, 1956. The city of Pittsburg purchased the locomotive from Kansas City Southern Lines for $1.00. The steam locomotive was the main mode of travel in the days of the old frontier.	Nothing runs like a Deere! And big too!!
Kids at heart....squirting each other with their water bottles!! That's one way to stay cool.	Our new friends from Everton; Dustin, Victoria, Ramon, Artie, Rita and Jamie. Have a great summer!!
Ice cream always makes getting to the top of the hills all worthwhile!!	It was enviable that we were going to have to do this!! It was just too tempting.

Day 27 (Fri 7/24/09)

Welcome to the "Show me state!"

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