Day 18

Today's the day that most of the riders have been anticipating ever since the trip started because traditionally it is our toughest day.  There's something about when you mention 140 miles and Missouri in the same sentence, there are visions of pain that overwhelm your thoughts.  Usually we have headwinds and there are a thousand hills between St Joe and Kirksville.  During route rap, I tried to assure everyone that many a lesser rider had finished this day and they could do it if they went at it with the right attitude.  The secret is to get an early start and to keep moving. 

We loaded the luggage earlier than usual and before breakfast so most of them were ready to start the day by 6:45.  They were met with a steady dose of hills right out of the motel.  Most of the hills were short and some were steep, but they just kept coming at them.  We call this day the "ride of a thousand hills" for good reason.  I spent most of the morning leapfrogging the riders with the van so I could take several pictures of the hills so they could document their efforts.  Because of the hilly terrain, no one rode together for very long.  After the first SAG it was 7 soloists strung out over the road.  It was just to hard to ride someone else's pace.  Find something comfortable and stick with it.

Everything was going really well as I was moving up track when I saw a "Bridge Out" sign along the side of the road...oops.  I hustled up to the site and found workers working on the roadbed of a small bridge over a pretty large creek.  The roadbed was there so the riders could cross, but the vans had to take a short detour to get around.  Good thing the riders could get through because the detour was almost 6 extra miles...not good on our longest day already.  There was no warning until we were close either and if we'd been a week earlier, there wouldn't have been an option to cross...there was no bridge.  Since the floating characteristics of a bicycle is pretty poor, our only option would have been to go around. 

We had our first SAG in Maysville MO a small town off the beaten path that consists of not much more than a town square.  Don't let the size of the town fool you; these are friendly folks.  Every time we stop there, several townspeople come by and chat.  Usually the people from the Chamber of Commerce come by and see what we are up to.  This year was no exception and they brought the newspaper too.  We spent several minutes with them so they could take pictures and talk to a couple of the riders.  It's nice to be from a small town where a big event is 7 bicyclists riding through your town and stopping to eat a peanut butter sandwich.  The store where we put up our SAG also offered all the riders a free drink and donut...now that's what I call a SAG.  They also wanted to know when our summer ride came through so they could provide a lunch stop complete with pizza and drinks.  I think we'll keep that stop for sure.

I got to ride after the SAG so I decided to ride solo for awhile just to spin my legs and warm up before too many climbs.  As it turned out, I began time trialing to catch the front runners before lunch.  It took about 23 miles, but I finally caught up with the front and took them on a side trip into Jamesport, a small Amish town, for some bakery treats.  There's a great bakery right on the town square that I always stop at for some snickerdoddles and pastry treats.  I only rode to lunch about 46 miles down track so the hard effort was a good training session and made me ready for some sweet things.  I think Mike and Andy liked the stop too.

At lunch, our luck finally ran out as the skies darkened and we had a bit of rain.  Not heavy, just enough to grime the bike and get us good and wet.  About 10 miles past lunch though, there were some nasty clouds to our north and it looked (and sounded) like they were going to get us good.  Luckily again, by the time the thunderstorm overtook us, it had pretty much fizzled out to nothing but showers.  We must be doing something right.  By the time we passed the last SAG at 109, the skies started to clear and the temperature finally got into the 70s as forecast...but it waited around until after 3:00 before deciding to warm up.

One thing in our favor was the wind.  After the last SAG at 109 miles, the winds seemed to be a little more from our rear.  I'm sitting at mile 120 typing this and still have 3 riders behind me and 4 are just past my position...it's after 4:00.  This wind has been a life saver today but there were times when the road bent in the wrong direction that it got a bit tough.  I think they will remember this as one of the toughest days in spite of the portions of favoring winds.  I think I'll let them sleep in tomorrow.  Heck, I may not be able to get them out of bed in the morning.

At the end of the day, everyone was really proud of themselves...and they have every right to be proud...they did a great job on a tough day for sure.  The last rider got in about 6:15...long day. 

I think everyone will sleep good tonight...we have some tired puppies.  For their reward for doing so well today, I think I'll let them go for a bike ride tomorrow.  Tune back in to see how we do.  See you then.  Good night.