Bye Kansas! You were a good state with amazing people!
Good morning Missouri!
Here we met Marc from Switzerland. He left Astoria on June 28th. He’s a wee bit faster…
Our first experiences in Missouri were similar to Kansas. Lots of wind turbines. Lots of cows. Lots of corn. Lots of soybeans.
And not too hilly. Marc and Doug are in the distance.
Missouri cows.
One of many many wind turbines.
Before long, though, things weren’t looking so much like Kansas. It’s as if someone crinkled up the land, and forgot to spread it out flat again. Oh yes, we were going up and down, up and down. The ups were becoming a bit steeper than the Flint Hills in Kansas. The downs were also a little steeper. Still, it wasn’t too bad. It also wasn’t blistering hot…yet.
At about 35 miles, we arrived in Golden City. I was counting down the miles to second breakfast! We found Cooky’s Cafe just off the route in town. There we had second breakfast (and I also had pie). We replenished our electrolytes, and headed back out on the road.
A few more miles, and we were getting into more hills with steeper downhills. One hill I noticed the grade was 9%. Haven’t seen that for awhile! It was really pretty though.
We were trending up…you know…Ozarks and all. The section coming into and out of Golden City is known as the “Ozark Plateau”. Then we must have come off the plateau, because the hills kept coming. Except for the fact that it was really hot now, I was enjoying them. Just going from hard gear to easy gear. I haven’t been in my easiest gear so consistently since Colorado!
We rolled through the “no services” town of Everton, and just had 7 miles to go until Ash Grove, our destination for the day.
In Ash Grove, we rolled to the city park. There’s a pool with a concession stand!
Yep, enjoyed the pool…free for cyclists!
This is the life!
Before we went swimming, a gentleman named David came over to us in the picnic shelter. He asked if we’d like to stay the night in air conditioning. Well…YES! He said as soon as the school group left the Barham House, we could wheel our bikes in and stay the night. He gave me a key so we could come and go (we’ll just drop it at City Hall in the morning in a drop box).
It turns out, the group was not a school thing, it was a family birthday/reunion with family members coming from as far away as Conway, Arkansas. Dale, one of the family members who lives here in Ash Grove, is a teacher. Eric, one of the other family members brought us some La Croix, and these really tasty frozen fruit popsicles. Then, Dale (this was all while we were sitting by the pool…we had been talking to them when we were in the pool), said they had leftover food, and would we like to come make plates before they cleaned up. Well…YES!
So, the three of us came over to the house (where we are staying tonight…it’s the old farmhouse, remodeled into an event place-bike hostel, when the city park was a farm). We had burgers, veggies, beans, and even birthday cake!
I really enjoyed talking with the family. Looks like Missouri is starting out with awesome people just like Kansas. Me thinks it’s a mid-west thing!
We did 70 miles today. Tomorrow we’ll do a bit less since there is more elevation (about 3000ft for tomorrow).
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