May 10 -- St. Joseph MO to Kirksville MO

We made it. Really there was not doubt -- it was just going to be a long day. Today was billed as a "signature day" because it was presumably the longest mileage -- but not by much. The pre-ride material listed today at 153 miles but it only came in at 145, so there must have been some change in routing over the years. 145 ties my previous record mileage in one day when Aaron and I rode the Bicycle Club of Philadelphia Scenic Schuylkill Century with the extra 10 miles option and rode to and from the starting point from our house in Radnor. Today we would have been in before 4pm but for a stop at, you guessed it, Dairy Queen. Elapsed time -- 9:20; rolling time -- 8:25.

This ride, due to its length, had three SAG stops plus we stopped at a little convenience store at mile 119. I guess that not all parts of the country have banned smoking in public places -- we tend to forget what these little stores smelled like not so long ago.

Everywhere we go people ask what we are doing, where we are going -- they are all curious, friendly and very helpful. We've had a number of people tell us that they wouldn't even DRIVE from Los Angeles to Boston ... Whether it is at little convenience stores, waypoints along the way ... whatever. At one of our SAG stops today a lady stopped her car and asked if she could take a picture of us for her kids -- I guess that we must look impressive and professional ? As we ride through these little towns people wave, say hello -- a lot of trucks & cars beep their horns and wave. Most people like the "look" of a group of bicyclists on the road, as long as we are not in their way ... but the latter group are in a minority. Most people are very courteous to us on the road.

Speaking of little towns -- I feel quite at home here. Many of the little towns list their population and I saw a few today that were in the 200's -- just like Loring Ontario ! (not New Smyrna Beach Florida). Kirksville itself, if I remember correctly, was listed as 17,000+. At least it had a DQ.

The motorists, however, differ from state to state ... well, I take that back -- they differ in Missouri. Pam, one of the riders, had warned us that Missouri drivers don't even like cyclists in single file on the shoulder ... and that you have to watch out for them passing on hills. Well, we encountered some of that today. At one point our little pace line of 5 was riding along the side of the roadway (there was no shoulder), single file, going up a hill. Our van passed us on the hill -- there really is plenty of room for a car or van to pass if we are single file along the side -- a pickup truck passed the van in the oncoming lane going over the crest of the hill -- yikes !! I shudder to think about what might have happened if there was oncoming traffic !!

Today I rode with Geoff and Jerry plus Logan and Brian. We kept up a good pace and the paceline helped more than I thought that it would with all the hills. There were enough flat stretches between some of the hills and the downhills themselves benefit from a pace line. Going up the hill, however, is more the lead rider setting a pace -- the winds were light, albeit headwinds, and not a factor going up the hills.

The scenery ? -- rolling, green, rolling, green -- you get the idea. Many ranches, horses and cattle, along the way contributed the never-ending aroma of farming livestock. Earlier in the day there were many crop farms, but the latter part of the day was mostly horses and cattle. None of the hills are very high -- from the topographical graph the highest hill is probably 200-300 feet, but they are endless. Close to Kirksville we passed a state park called "Thousand Hills State Park" -- we all thought that was already covered by State Route 6.

Today we followed 6 basically from start to finish except for a few mile diversion at the beginning devised by Mike to get us around a section of 6 that was under water. Yes -- there was lots of water. Rivers that were normally a hundred feet wide were 1/4 mile wide encompassing farmland on either side.

It was hot and humid. When we stopped at the convenience store at 119 the outdoor thermometer read 88 -- with the humidity it felt hotter than that. Don't get me wrong, though, I'm not complaining about the weather. Sure it would be great to have it in the low 70's, but I'll take this over low 40's or below.

Bill Reenstra had an incredible piece of bad luck today -- he broke his crank (the thing that the pedal attaches to) -- actually snapped it. They are going to try to improvise something so that he can ride tomorrow but failing that the bike shop in Quincy IL (tomorrow's destination) is prepared to get him rolling again.

-------- pause for dinner ----------

Well, the restaurant here at the Days Inn was out of a number of things on the menu and there is nothing within 1/2 mile of here ... not even a convenience store. We ate anyway -- location, location, location. Their chili was good and the piece of salmon and the fries were ok.

Geoff hurt his knee during the ride today so he is going to take it easy tomorrow, start with the early group. The early group is the slower riders who start about 1/2 hour earlier -- that keeps the riders more compact within the route and easier to manage from a support standpoint. Knowing Geoff, I wouldn't be surprised if he jumps in with Jerry and me when we catch up to him.

Other news -- they were not able to move a set of cranks over to Bill's bike because he has an Italian bottom bracket and they had no tool to remove it -- and even if they did, the replacement bottom bracket / cranks would not fit anyway. It's not clear the that bike shop in Quincy will have the correct parts either -- I'm not sure what Bill is going to do. He does have another bike at home -- I don't know if shipping it out to the route is an option. He will be talking to the bike shop first thing tomorrow -- unfortunately they close at 5pm. Small town USA -- there are two bike shops here in Kirksville ... MOTORbike shops as it turns out, so that is no help.

Sometimes this reminds me of being on band trips when we were in high school. You're travelling with a group of people, some friends closer than others, all in the same hotel -- you leave your room to get something from the soda machine and you run into people from your group -- the only difference is that there are no teachers trying to control the antics and partying instincts of the younger set. Well that's not the only difference -- with this crowd we are probably all asleep before 9pm. We are all a lot older. Perhaps it's like a "seniors" bus trip ? that may be a more apt comparison ...

I did not take any pictures today although I carried the camera all day. Here is a group picture from yesterday, copied from Mike's blog (just to keep y'all happy):



Also, fyi, here is the second sheet of today's route sheet -- the first sheet shows us the turns and landmarks along the way with mileage markers so that we can keep track. The second sheet has a map overview and a topographical graph. Today's is all up and down, but the scale is key. Today's scale is from 600 feet at the bottom to 1074 feet at the top. So each up and down is only a couple of hundred feet. On earlier days through the mountains, the topographical graph scale might have been, for example, from 2000 feet to 9000 feet, so small hills disappear and only the large hills stand out.