Day 18 – Farmington, MO to….Owl’s Bend

So, I must have missed the part of middle school geography where they talked about the Ozarks. I thought once we crossed the Mississippi, we were in the Great Plains. Turns out, there’s still some climbing to do. Rather, there’s still a lot of climbing to do.

First off, there were still some remnants of yesterday’s rain-drenched ride when we woke up this morning. My waterproof shoes were still drying on the air conditioner.

And JP was feeling under the weather. Not sure if it was the cold, the rain, or the sketchy dinner, but he was out of commission early so I struck out on my own. JP eventually made it out of the hotel and powered through about 40 miles before the day got the better of him.

It was a beautiful day for riding. Arm warmers and vest for at least the first few hours with bright sun and no real breeze. No complaints today. Tho I knew I’d be hitting the hills before too long. The ride out of Farmingdale was fast. I made great time on the first 20 miles and was stoked to get in to some serious climbs. On the first real climb of the day, I rode up on a pack of dogs. So, running in to a single dog on a climb is a bummer. Running in to more than one dog is trouble. Running in to 4 dogs, all over 80 lbs… Yeah. Trouble.

On this ride I’ve been pretty keyed in to the houses I’m riding by looking for signs of loose dogs. And then I’m looking for things like fences, big ditches, and chains that will stop the charge of a said dog. At this house there was a pretty large ditch which would usually have stopped (or at least slowed down) the pursuit. These dogs? Nope, they bounded through the ditch without breaking stride. I turned around and put the throttle down.. and even then a couple of them pursued for about 100 yards. Good times.

Heidi brought the MCC up and SAG’d me past the little critters. After that I had a few dogs who gave chase but they were more interested in playing than chewing on my leg.

The hills ate me up but I managed to get 74 miles in. I bailed on the last hill of the day. My legs just didn’t have anything left.

We rearranged our rest day so we could relax on the 4th rather than ride on the holiday. We’re staying in Springfield for the next few days (more on that in another post) so after the ride we headed in that direction. On the way, we stopped by Laura Ingalls Wilder’s house in Mansfield MO. Seeing this house was on Heidi’s bucket list and she was very cheesed to see it.

Our tour guide was a riot… it was clear she lives for giving the tour and talking about LIW. We were the last tour of the day, so there was hardly anyone around. Even having never read the books, it was a really neat place to visit. I even managed to grab the camera for a bit and get Heidi in a few pictures.

Last few pics of the day are just some fun ones. Long stretches of concrete roads in the sun make for neat optical illusions. The magical disappearing road:

Finally, the MCC had a very Monty Python evening. I was waiting for a giant, cartoon foot to come out of the sky and crush it. Thankfully, no such foot appeared… tho God did (you know, the one with the oddly moving mouth that’s just the jaw cut out and moving up and down). God told me to get on my bike and keep riding. I informed him I was taking the 4th as a rest day and he should bother me again on the 5th.

It’s late. Time to rest.