ROUTE:
Eminence to Farmington MO |
DISTANCE:
84 miles |
TOTAL CLIMBING:
6961 ft |
Click here for
Garmin daily ride data
![](images/Day30.1.jpg)
A
few good climbing hills. I actually had to drop down into my third chain ring
for some of these!!
(Jim
Felty would have loved riding w/ us today!!)
Click
here for Summary Data sheet
(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: We'll have a southwesterly wind and the temp
should be in the mid 80's. Another great day for
riding!!
So
we started off the day with a nutritious breakfast of yogurt, granola, pop
tarts, and Nutella spread on bagels. Thank goodness we are burning all these
calories so we can eat pretty much anything!!
We briefed the ride, route,
safety, etc and were off. Right out of town were climbing hills, catching our
breath and climbing more hills. We actually had a pretty good time. Skip drove
by about an hour later. We flagged him down for water and my crank was making an
annoying clicking sound. Made a couple of adjustments and the problem seemed to
go away. I'll watch it and see what happens.
We stopped at a rest stop in
Ellington and when we started riding again; John
discovered he had a flat rear tire. So that is number four for him. He found a
little wire which no doubt came from one of the hundred blown out steal belted
radials we have passed along the shoulder of the road. In reading a number of
other cross country biker blogs; this is normal. In fact I remember reading that
on one day a guy had 20 flats from these wire shards!! Hopefully we won't ever
come close to that record!!
By the time we got into
Centerville; Skip was starting to get worried about. There was no cell coverage
so he couldn't verify how far out of town we were. Just as we got into town;
Skip was getting ready to go find us. We had a nice lunch and then were on our
way.
After
lunch we were studying the map; and a nice lady offered a few suggestions. She
gave us a little short cut that ultimately shaved off 10 miles from our ride. As
Martha would say; This is a good thing!!
The rest of the afternoon was nice
riding. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened. Stopped for an ice cream
and water at a bait shop. Very nice folks. Filled our water bottles and the attendant
was a prior Marine....or as they say; once a Marine always a Marine!
We arrived into Farmington and
called Skip for directions to the Hotel. It tu rns
out we made good time because Skip was just checking in. Must have been that
short cut we took!!
We had dinner at Pizza Hut
and while we were there we met JR and Netta who were very nice. They gave us a
very nice donation. Thanks!!
Well, tomorrow we leave Missouri,
cross the mighty Mississippi and enter our eight state - Illinois. The
weatherman is predicting rain in the afternoon, so it will do us well to leave
early and get into Carbondale IL soonest.
Thanks for joining us.....ride
safely and keep the wind to your back!!
The Riding4Hope Team
www.riding4hope.org
(David, John, James & Skip)
Signing out 7/28/09; 0130
YOU DON'T
SAY:
Skip - While taking a
picture of him in his blue chair "People are going to think all I
do is lay around in my chair." Yes this is true!!
John - while riding up a
large hill and talking to James "Be quiet or I'll leave you behind
on the hill again." You got to love brotherly love!!
James - In the afternoon
we held turtle races with the two box turtles we caught earlier in the
day. James turtle crossed the finish line first "Oh yea, my turtle
rocks!!"
Skip - The showers were in
a bathhouse several cabins down. James reported that there were spiders.
Now this actually was a very nice bath house (recently remodeled) and
although I didn't see any Skip was quoted as saying "Well I guess I
won't be taking a shower." And he didn't. Good thing he drives by
himself while we are biking ![](images/smile4.gif)
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DID I REALLY
DO THAT?
So a little background
history to the cabins we stayed at last night. Yes we got the cabins
donated with the condition that there were no towels. When Skip told me
about this I said OK although thought it was a little strange; but free
is free. So when I called Skip asking for direction for the cabins; Skip
mentioned that there was a slight problem that there were no sheets
either at the cabin. Not an issue; being Boy Scouts we all brought
sleeping bags. Well at least us Boy Scouts; Skip on the other hand only
had a towel. So last night the kids and I slept comfortably in sleeping
bags and Skip was wrapped up in a beach towel. I didn't have my wits
about me otherwise I would have a picture posted here as well!!
And of course he has no one to blame since 1) he arranges all lodging accommodations
and 2) he didn't bring a sleeping bag.
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PHOTOS OF THE DAY |
In front of the
cabins....Skip's normal pose!
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These little box turtles
seemed to be crossing the road all the time. Why did the box turtle cross
the road?
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Twin power!!
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John's new creation -- cinnamon
pop tart, Nutella, peanut butter, and another cinnamon pop tart. Now
that's some good eat'n!!
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James making the more
traditional turkey bagel sandwich.
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John showing off his under
arm? He has a kink in his shoulder? Nope, trying to get a signal so he can
text.....should be using Verizon vice ATT; I had a signal
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More
photos on Facebook Album
Yesterday
Tomorrow
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