Day Thirty-one

Lauren CRUSHING the Missouri Rollers.

Goofy Girard demonstrating how signal for an emergency landing on a bike. Don't tell Michelle.

Hey we're in Mennonite Country and I saw that guy who advertises the free heaters in Parade Magazine. I know it was the same guy because he had long hair, a white beard, and a straw hat.

If I just wrote about this you'd think I was makin' it up!

Palisades Park

Up like a rocket ship

Down like a roller coaster

That was today’s earworm courtesy of Freddy “Boom-Boom” Cannon as we hit the Missouri rollers over and over and over. Judy Clawson had warned that it was better to get into a rhythm rather than to scream down and claw up. I took her advice and really enjoyed those babies which is important because we’ve got a lot more tomorrow.

Today’s virtual riders are all my buddies from the Whitinsville Community Center Spin classes particularly the lovely, talented drill-instructors: Tina, Carol, Judy, and Chantel. I never really liked the stand-up and sit-down stuff on the bikes but they probably helped me prepare for this section of the tour. From now on I’m going to refer to those exercises as “Missouri Rollers”.

The riding today was exactly what I had pictured when I thought about this trip. Except for a few miles getting out of St. Joseph and into Chillicothe we were on quiet country roads winding through farmland, occasionally pedaling through a village with minimal traffic. Even the drivers here are trained to wait behind us until they have a clear view of the road ahead at which point they swing into the oncoming lane to pass. Coming from New England it’s almost bizarre but there was never even a close call or any hint of road rage during the day.

Remember how Robb and I carefully spent time yesterday checking and changing tires? Well neither of us got flats today which means that Robb’s suburb record of zero flats (I hope this doesn’t jinx him!) still holds. However, for the first time in his riding career Robb experienced a failed rim. I wasn’t with him at the time but the explosion was so loud that Lester thought his eyes passed before his life. Fortunately they were on a slight incline doing 18-20 mph so the only damage was to the rim which is totally fractured on the side. I can only imagine the carnage if they had been on a downhill.

When Larry and I came upon them Robb had somehow managed to put things back together well enough to limp the next 3 miles into SAG #2. There Girard fixed him up with a new wheel and kudos to Ace Wrencher Neil at Bike Alley back in Worcester for building and air shipping a new wheel which will be waiting for Robb on Wednesday in Kirksville.

Perfect stop for the evening because there is a local ice cream shop about a mile before the hotel AND there’s a DQ across the parking lot for a bedtime snack. This is very important as my ice-cream-o-meter was way into the red zone.

The five new riders who have joined us are all great people and strong riders. I think this “heartland” section is going to be a lot of fun.

Today’s ratings: (the higher the better or easier)

Scenery: 7

Road conditions: 8

Grunt factor: 7