Days 19 and 20 – Springfield, MO

We’re in Springfield Missouri today. And we were here yesterday. And we’ll be here tomorrow. We’ve hit an odd point in the route and the schedule where it made the most sense to be in one place for a few days in a row. Since the 4th is a holiday (surprise!), we moved our rest day from the 5th to the 4th. And JP is taking today as a second rest day to try to get his legs back under him. and the route for tomorrow basically just takes us north of Springfield. So rather than Heidi, the kids, and I skipping through a couple of small town dumpy hotels on a holiday weekend, we fast forwarded a bit and came to Springfield. While we’re still riding the route, we’re using this town as a base of operation for a few days as a) there was something to do over the holiday and b) we’re holding off on the dumpy backwater hotels as long as possible.

All that said, today was Terran’s first real day in the saddle since we started. The hills of SW VA and Kentucky were a bit tough for him to start on, so now that we’re hitting some flats, its time to get him going. We went for what should have been a 35 mile route across and back through Springfield. He made it 30 miles before he threw in the towel. Honestly, he did great and kept a strong pace the whole time. 2.5 hours was just enough for him at this point.

But we’re ahead of ourselves. Yesterday was the 4th, one of Heidi’s favorite holidays. To celebrate we got all the boys haircuts. Yep, even the 2 year old. The hands of the hairdresser were shaking as she cut Dax’s hair through all his protests. She did a great job but it was stressful for everyone involved. Later, Heidi tried to get a bit of a family photo of the boys. Safe to say it was one of those moments when you wished Microsoft’s “To the Cloud!” commercial actually worked. This is the best one. They’re mostly all looking at the camera.

After bumming around town for the day and getting some shopping done, we ended up back at the hotel around sunset. One of the hairdressers gave us directions on a place we could watch fireworks from. However, as the sun went down, Terran was busy playing DOTA, Bobby was playing the Sims 3 (I had just bought it for him earlier that day) and Dax was playing ball. No one was really interested in trudging out for fireworks. So instead we watched them like we normally do.

This morning Terran and I geared up for our ride. Another great day for riding. We even matched and everything.

The ride started a bit awkwardly. I had routed us through the Springfield Nature Conservancy. Unfortunately the paths through the Conservancy don’t allow bikes. So as I was standing there trying to figure out how to fix my route, one of the volunteers stopped by and gave us a map of the other trails in the area. Super helpful and got us back on track with our ride.

It was a good ride, most of it on several bike paths throughout the city.  When we got done, the whole family went back down to the Conservancy and walked around in the woods. Terran managed to levitate a leaf we found.

Hint: it was actually in a spider web.

On the way out, we were passing a guided tour on the path in front of us. As Heidi pushed Dax through the group, the tour guide asked Heidi if she wanted to stop to look at the 6′ long black snake that was just off the trail. That sort of question isn’t the type of question Heidi likes. It’s akin to asking someone with a peanut allergy if they’d like a bite of your PBJ. Or asking anyone if they’d like to have an alien to come rocketing out of their stomach. The answer isn’t just no, but “ohmygodnonononogetmeoutofhere”

I wasn’t quick enough with the camera but I did dust off photoshop to do my best to recreate the moment.

It’s not “Washington crossing the Delaware” but I think it’s moving nonetheless.

Tomorrow, we ride up through the west side of town. Likely the last we’ll see of the Ozarks until we drive back across the country in a few weeks.