Council Bluff Lake to Cape Girardeau

Click the map for route details

Tired legs in the morning, but more importantly, loose spokes on my rear wheel. I had noticed something the night before, but decided to put it off until the next morning, so when I checked the wheel this morning, I found that several spokes were loose; two had almost completely worked themselvses out. This may have been a long time in the making or a result of all the climbing yesterday, I am not sure, but I tightened the spokes, re-trued the wheel and was under way.

Riding high through Mark Twain National Forest

The ride began mercifully flat over the top of Mark Twain National Forest and into Lesterville. Just outside of Lesterville, the route briefly joined the Transamerica Trail as seen below, although the picture is not the greatest because a fairly fierce dog was guarding the intersection and suggested I move along before taking a picture (dog's head is just popping up behind the driveway on the left).

Intersection with the Transamerica Trail

Colorful Ozarks

Lesterville is not much to write home about, but it lies by the Black River, which is very nice and crystal-clear. It feels good just to look at its cool waters in the sweltering heat. Lesterville also has several gas stations, so it is a good place to refuel. The station I chose was full of topless guys who were filling up their quads and thought I was funny. Once again they did not say anything to my face, but it is getting a little tiresome, I have to admit.

Just beyond Lesterville, I ran into Brent and Lee, who are riding across the United States from East to West and are doing lots of things along the way. Check out their website for more information on what they are doing. Quite a trip.

Brent and Lee checking an item off their eLifelist

Annapolis
Annapolis, a town of 340 residents, was the next stop along the way, time to pick up more water. The town was apparently having a general power outage, but the little grocery store in the center of town was still open, so I went into the dark, hoping to find some water and maybe a snack. The fat lady behind the counter, busy with calculating the total for another customer since the cash register was not working, looked at me, clearly hostile. Her eyes followed me up and down, then: "Yeees? Can I help you?" I, taken aback by her hostility: "Uhm, I hope so. What's the capital of Maryland?" She: "—?" So I: "Well, never mind. Good-bye." I guess we all have our breaking points, and this was mine. We are all trying to make the best of who we are and to get along with one another, or at least we should. But respecting our differences can only go so far; it really is only a small step from sneering at a strange cyclist to tying homosexuals to a fence and burning crosses. So I will only tolerate it up to a point.

I continued on from there through Madison County towards Cherokee Pass, which lies at the edge of the Ozarks.

A bridge of Madison County

I loaded up with a burger, fries, shake, etc. in Cherokee Pass. The stop at the drive-in, by the way, made me realize that I am already starting to recognize individual country music songs. Yikes.

Now I had to decide what to do for the rest of the day. It had been over eighty miles, was getting late, and Cape Girardeau was still over sixty miles away. But there were no campgrounds or even many villages between Cherokee Pass and Cape Girardeau. I finally decided to give it a shot and try to make it back to the Mississippi before nightfall. It was close, but the terrain was leveling off now, and I made it to Cape Girardeau just in time.

Winding back towards the Mississippi

Back in the plains

Set for an evening ride into Cape Girardeau

Cape Girardeau, just in time

So now I am back by the Great River, set to leave Missouri behind tomorrow, heading back into Illinois, then south through Kentucky and Tennessee into Mississippi. It has been a very long day, over 140 miles and even more climbing than yesterday, although the slopes were not as steep.

The Show Me State has been interesting, a land of contrasts between riches and absolute poverty. You don't have to be too rich around here to live like you are. On the other hand, many trailers, and trailers are the preferred housing unit around here, look completely abandoned, half destroyed, and only on closer inspection reveal themselves to still be inhabited.

Welcome to the Garden of Eagan

Better than a dormitory in Shenzhen?

Now it is time to leave it behind, though. I have never been to either Tennessee or Mississippi, so perhaps it is just a taste of things to come, we will see. Tonight I am staying at a motel to recover from the Ozarks, which, strangely enough, are not even really mountains, but rather a dissected plateau. Some plateau. I don't care what the geologists call it, it was hard riding.

Road Kill Tally
The back roads of Missouri are surprisingly devoid of road kill, and so it was today. Probably the animals realized that it was just too hot to be out on the road.

1. Racoon: 79
2. Opossum: 33
3. Skunk: 20
4. Frog: 18
5. Deer: 17
6. Cat: 16
7. Groundhog: 13
8. Squirrel: 12
9. Snake: 12
10. Turtle: 11
11. Bunnywabbit: 8
12. Mouse: 7
13. Armadillo: 4
14. Fox: 3
15. Lizard: 3
16. Mole: 2
17. Dog: 2
18. Porcupine: 1
19. Chipmunk: 1

• Bird: 95