May 8, 2011
The hills, that is. We have had enough! Even though we are starting to feel stronger every day, we are ready for a break from all of these steep climbs. We had no idea that Missouri was going to be so darn hilly!
Today was definitely a tough day. We got an early start, but took a lot of little breaks. The hills today weren't any steeper than other hills, but the weather made it worse. We've gotten used to cool, overcast days, but today was hot and sunny. We all felt weaker than usual, but tried to stay extra-hydrated and take frequent breaks.
We had a wonderful lunch break in Ash Grove, MO. We found a little restaurant on Main Street called Mama Loca's Cafe and Cantina. The owners introduced themselves and told us about their friends who also biked across America (except they did it with two young children...one of whom was still being potty-trained).
We biked the last 7 miles to Everton at a surprisingly quick pace. We had to go a mile or two outside of town to reach our destination: Running Spring Farm. This place is a sort of lodge for hunters, but they have hosted lots of bikers over the years since they are so close to the trans-Am route. It has an outdoors-y, rustic feel. We are now watching some TV with our legs up, relaxing before our long day tomorrow.
Posted by the girls.
May 8, 2011
So I think it's crucial that we add to our post from yesterday. After doing our business at the public library, we wandered down Main Street to the only restaurant in town (besides Subway). It was a sort of local cafe. We ordered our food and people-watched as we waited. One of the most interesting sights was of a man dressed in drag. People were joking around with him, so we figured this wasn't his usual attire. After asking, we found out that the local nursing home was having a fundraising ...
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May 6, 2011
When we woke up, the rain had finally stopped, but everything was still wet. We hung all of our stuff on the fence around the sand volleyball court and waited for the sun to come out and work its magic. Before long, everything was dry. We enjoyed some new flavors of oatmeal and headed off to Wal-Mart. We were almost out of fuel, so we had to buy some white gas to re-fill our fuel bottles with.
We finally headed out of Houston and were pleasantly surprised with how nice the weather was. Sunny,... Continue reading...
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May 6, 2011
Happy Cinco de Mayo, everybody!! We started off the holiday by eating our usual oatmeal and packing up our tents. We are so grateful that we were allowed to stay at Alley Springs Campground for the night. We had the entire place to ourselves and we all slept soundly.
Our goal today was to bike to Houston (this one is in Missouri although it is in Texas county). The ride would total only about 38 miles, but we knew it would be hilly since we were still in the Ozarks. It was not nearly as hilly ...
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May 6, 2011
When we woke up, Hermnn was preparing breakfast for us. He made really delicious fried eggs with parsley and paprika and put them on toasted rye bread. We also had bananas and hot chocolate. Herman took some photos of us for his album and sent us on our way. Thank you so much, Herman, for letting us stay with you!! We enjoyed listening to your stories about life in Germany and moving to America. Your cooking was wonderful. We hope to see you again in the future!
As soon as we were out of Ellin...
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May 6, 2011
We ate our free continental breakfast at the hotel (cereal, bagels, bananas, Little Debbie snacks, orange juice), packed up, and left Fredericktown. Our goal was to bike to Ellington, MO to stay with another WarmShowers.org host, but we were a bit worried about making it there since it was more than 60 miles and very hilly terrain (in the foothills of the Ozark mountains). I am happy to report that we made it! It definitely was a struggle up those steep hills with so much weight on our bikes....
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May 3, 2011
Even though it was raining this morning, we decided that we needed to bike. Judy had already been so generous to let us stay two nights, three would've been too much. We woke up early since the showers/thunderstorms were meant to be worse later in the day. Judy made us pancakes with sweet potatoes and flax...mmmmhmmmmm!
It was nearly impossible to find a route that wasn't closed though. Every highway we wanted to take had closures because of the floods. After calling the Missouri Department of...
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May 2, 2011
Today was our first day of volunteering! We had planned on volunteering earlier, but weren't able to do so because we had to re-route and change our itinerary. Somehow we ended up back on our original schedule which had us in Cape Girardeau on May 1st for the Steamboat Classic Triathlon. This was the 27th year for the event. It consisted of a 450-yard swim, 15-mile bike and 5-mile run. All three of us were assigned different tasks; Rebekah was in charge of the team exchanges (this is where pe...
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May 1, 2011
Alan made us a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs & toast. We said our goodbyes and headed back onto the Tunnel Hill State Trail. We stayed on the path for 10 miles to Vienna. It's a good thing we didn't plan to stay on the trail past Vienna because it was closed (most probably due to flooded areas). Instead we took IL-146 W and pedaled through a few small towns. Once we reached the town of Anna, it was time for a Wal-Mart/lunch break. Earlier in the day, Emily realized that one lens was m...
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April 30, 2011
We left the church in Shawneetown and headed west on IL-13 toward Harrisburg. We were shocked by the sights along the way: flooded farm fields, houses underwater, closed roads, and other signs of disaster. We were so lucky that none of our roads were flooded. We made it safely to Harrisburg (about 20 miles) and crossed the 1,000 mile marker of our trip thus far. We stopped for awhile at Wal-Mart to pick up some supplies and kill some time. We knew we would be staying with our first WarmShower...
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