78 miles biked today
7 hrs. 18 minutes of ride time
10.7 mph
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| Taking a break! |
Have you ever asked anyone for directions and had them respond, “You can’t get there from here”, well that’s the way we feel tonight. Roads in Missouri don’t run north and south or east and west. They only go left or right and up or down or over the hill and then left or right, never north or south, east or west. Today we did 78 miles going up and down and around and back and forth to get what, if the map scale is correct, 43 miles by way of the crow. Very frustrating to us flatlanders! And we thought Iowa had hills!
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Maybe if we get close enough behind this tractor we can draft?
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With our recent experience flying, we now feel somewhat qualified to introduce a new hill rating system to the biking world. No more of this wussy category 1 to 5 stuff. We’re now only interested in hills that yield a G force of more than 1 at the bottom of the hill! Today’s ride provided several downhills that seemed to qualify at near to 1.5 G’s, real thrillers, good for over 50 MPH if you were to turn it loose! One with a railroad crossing at an angle at the bottom of the hill, what disappointment.
All kidding aside though it was a great ride today with great scenery and perfect weather conditions. Our original plan was to call it quits after 42 miles and stay in Sullivan Mo. tonight, but we arrived there at 11:30 and couldn’t see wasting an afternoon of perfect biking conditions, so after a dinner at Cracker Barrel, we decided to push on another 35 miles to Potosi Mo. We arrived here at about 4:30 and were glad to check into the Super 8 and call it a day. After 78 miles of hills, believe me, we are shot!
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| Nuts! That's a railroad crossing sign! |
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| Tracks at the bottom of the hill - grrrr! |
Our bike maps tell us todays ride has been through the Ozark Mountain Range and conditions will gradually get better from here to Cape Girardeau the next couple days. Boy I hope so! I suspect all I’ll see in my dreams tonight will be curve signs and double yellow lines, but just the same, I’m sure we’ll sleep well.
It was fun to read about your recent escapades and this blog sure is a great way to journal your trip. We are surprised how it has cooled off here somewhat during the two weeks we were gone and how much earlier it gets dark etc....
ReplyDeleteHave a great day.
Love ya
Sharon