Back in action with the church message boards. Nothing perks you up like a good old religious message from Missouri.
Please note the population size. These are the types of towns we keep riding through.
Meet Haley. She is the only person I know with that name besides my old next door neighbor. Haley is one of the most upbeat people on this trip. That might be because early on, she got her MCAT scores and realized she's a genius and can go where ever she wants for med school. She used to run cross country and swears she can eat a whol watermelon in on sitting despite the story I told her of my track team's failure in the same atempt. But after a long day of biking and the appetite that works up this girl may be able to do it because she loves watermelon so much. She knows all the words to One Week, the song by Barenaked Ladies. Today was her 21st birthday and her mom sent party packages to the leaders to help celebrate. There were party poppers a giant inflatable monkey and squirt guns. Even though she traveled to Canada illegally by boat once, Haley is still the classic American girl.
It really makes people mad when they honk and swear at you to be greated by such kindness.
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Jul 17, 2010
What a gorgeous day we encountered on our way to Lake Ozark. Ok maybe I didn't think it was that gorgeous while it was happening because the sweat flowing off me was moving faster than the Mississippi and drivers were actually trying to kill us. Does anyone know how to get rid of sunburn? I bet your remedy doesn't include go back out in the sun for ten hours a day. So I guess the sunburn is here to stay, but that's ok with me. I still had a great time despite losing the weight of a small child in sweat. I haven't been to every state in the US yet, but I'm confidently going out on a limb to say Missouri is the worst state for cyclists. Today the road surfaces alternates three different types of pavement with 10-20 meter patches each. Only one was smooth and the others made your body mad to be on a bike. The cherry on top was the angry motorists. Locals told us tonight that MO doesn't get that many cyclists. I don't know if that's because it's more humid here than in a rain cloud, or because the roads are rubbish. One thing I learned today, never ride a bike on rt. 42. Everyone today got sworn at atleast 6 times and I got ran off the road twice. This is no exaggeration. At the end of the day, we compared notes on angry drivers and found out many of our encounters were with the same people. The rolling roads of Missouri were nice early when they were empty and Brandt and I had room to ride side by side and chat for miles about fair housing, credit systems, and a lot more. Conversation makes the ride when you're not seeking solitude so the 63 miles of hills really were a breeze. So what to do when we pull in after a hard ride in 102 degree heat... How about ride 10 more miles round trip to a lake to go swimming?! Lake Ozark is a large man made lake that is a huge tourist destination. I guess without the ocean here, people flock to this body of water for outdoor recreation and vacation. The surrounding town is a tourist hotspot with an atmoshphere of restaurants and shops like you would see in say Cape May, NJ or Gatlinburg, TN. Being the fatty that I am, the best part of my day was dinner. Tonight we were dinnerless and a couple people called up Outback for a donation. They came through just like the North Haven one did for my benefit dinner. We got two large trays of spiced chicken with like 50 pieces. They also included 3 large containers of garlic mashed potatoes and 36 loaves of bread with a large vat of butter. We ate like kings...again.
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