Day 18

 Mileage: 106.5

Total Mileage: 1458

 

I think tomorrow the Ozarks and I will be parting ways with a mutual grudging admiration.

 

I woke up this morning a bit early since one of the other cyclists sharing the outside pavilion was a very heavy snorer and I wasn't going to get much more sleep. I was on my bike and on the road by 5:40, just in time to catch a beautiful Ozark sunrise.

 

 

Today is wet, and it's not due to rain or dew or condensation, it's just very very humid outside. There were huge fog banks over the mountains when I kicked off this morning and I was thoroughly soaked with sweat before 6 o'clock. I found out this morning why the Ozarks have a reputation for being a grueling self propelled rollercoaster of incessant and unrelenting hills. I pushed through about 30 miles of steep hills, 15-20% grades before finally arriving at the town of Eminence where I had breakfast. The upshot of this wicked segment was that the climbs kept taking me up small mountain peaks and the descents brought me across a lot of pretty rivers. 

 

After a similar 8 mile haul into Alley Spring, things finally started to let up and transformed into a gentle climb. Let me tell you, the grade of the hills you're riding is infinitely more important than the net elevation change. A slow and steady uphill is so much less exhausting than the steep rollercoastering of the early morning.

 

Around Alley Spring, I stopped for water and met a cyclist named Chris from Britain. He's also riding the TransAm, albeit with significantly more weight than me. We rode together into Summersville and then the remaining 25 into Houston. It was nice to have someone to gripe to about the fact that every Missouri highway seems to have rumble strips filling up the shoulders of the road. They're nearly invisible until you're riding on them which makes you seem like a real jackass to the passing motorists for riding in the road instead of the nice-appearing shoulder. Oh well, what can you do?

 

I should be doing a better job of taking pictures of the cyclists I'm meeting, but the fact is, there are just so many of them. Right now, I'm in the middle of the Race Across America pack, and keep meeting cyclists coming the other direction. Last night in Ellington I stayed with a guy named Mike (westbound) Stewart (westbound) and three eastbound travelers whose names I didn't catch. Yesterday I also saw 5-6 eastbound racers and ran into another 4 today.

 

In Houston, Chris went off to find a motel for the night and I tried to decide where I would shoot for the night. I ended up settling on Hartville, another 35 miles away, and started in on the grind. Along the way I stopped in a little town called Ben Davis for water and met a nice lady named Joan and her two kids. They run the convenience store in town and Joan brings her own water in from home so that passing cyclists don't have to fill up from the iron-tainted tap water of the store. We talked about the leaders of the bike race and I signed the guest log. Turns out I'm finally on the same day as a couple named Alexis and Travis I've been trying to catch for a while and might find them in Hartville. Before I left, her son James taught me a good way to fold a paper airplane and I taught him a better way to tie his shoes. Fair exchange in my mind.

 

Finally, towards the evening I rode into Hartville. I stopped off as I was crossing a creek coming into town and took a quick bath/rinse where it ran under the bridge which felt amazing! It was a hot day today and I pulled a lot of miles through pretty difficult terrain.

 

One thing that small towns do around here which I find hilarious, is they post their state championships on a sign as you enter the town. Hartville has apparently been pretty successful in recent years, but this sign reminded me of Hindman, Kentucky where a sign as you enter town reads "Boys State Baseball Champs, 1943." And that's it, it's the only championship up there. But don't worry about it Hindman, I'm sure it's just been a bit of a slow century, you'll bounce back soon.

 

 

Tonight I'm sleeping on the grass outside the city hall. I didn't find Alexis and Travis here, perhaps they went farther and camped somewhere else for the night. I'm exhausted so even though it's blazing hot here, I'm ready to fall asleep before 8. G'night!