Day 32: Fun and Adventure

Chillicothe to Kirksville, KS
Miles:  82   Climb:  4,300
Total Miles:  2,309

Crazy.  Today was crazy and fun.  Today will be a memory.  The ABB Tour Director was driving the van and not riding today. She rides the same make and model bike I ride (TREK, Domane), so she suggested putting her back wheel on my bike so I could have a full gear set.  I accepted the offer and I am glad I did.  The hills today were unbelievable.  Hill after hill after hill.  Some as steep as 12% grade.  I never could have managed it with my broken cassette.  These hills are like nothing I've ever done.  And it was so much fun.

We started early to beat the heat and had a beautiful ride on country roads through rural Missouri. Rolling pastures and fields of corn and soybeans planted along the natural counters of the terrain were spectacular.  The fields were lush and the contrast in the shades of green was striking. I rode on the barrowed wheel with Liz, whose husband, John, wanted to ride alone to ride fast today.  Liz and I rode two abreast, talking, for 33 miles to the first SAG stop. Shortly after the first SAG stop it began to rain, then it poured, and then a true Missouri storm came through.  We pulled into a farmer's tool shed whose door was wide open.  Wayne, James and Richard were already sheltering there. Speculation lightening. Thunder. Wind. Rain.  We shivered in the shed for almost two hours, waiting for the storm to move through.

Back on the road, we rode through the beautiful Missouri countryside.  The pastures stretched for miles over the hills and the lush, green fields of corn and soybeans sparkled from the rain.  We came to a construction site, which we had been instructed by the ABB staff to ride through, except we couldn't.  The rain had filled the dry creek and the only way across was to carry our bikes through mud and onto the bridge that was being constructed.  The road crew helped us walk across metal planks that lay between the bridge structures about 20 feet in the air.  By the time we got to the other side, our bikes were fine, but our shoes were caked with wet, heavy mud.  We couldn't clip on the pedals and had to use a nail that the construction worker gave us to dig the cleat out from the mud on our shoes so we could ride on.  When we finally got back on the bikes, about three hours behind schedule and with 26 miles to go, Liz, with all sincerity said, "It really is a lovely afternoon, isn't it?" I almost fell off my bike laughing.

But Liz was right.  It truly was a lovely afternoon.  The hills today were constant and several were a grade of 10 - 12 percent.  I've never ridden such a challenging route.  The road flowed over the Missouri terrain, one hill after another, for the entire 82 miles route.  It was a day of hard work, bad weather, and construction zones, and it was the most fun day, yet.  I laughed more today than I have for the entire trip to this point.

The cassette Rex shipped arrived at the hotel today and the mechanic installed it this evening because tomorrow we have more of the same terrain.  Ninety miles of hills to the Mississippi River and into Illinois.  Weather forecast is for hot temperatures and the possibility of more rain, so we have an earlier than usual start.