Kirksville, Mo - Day 32

Hi everyone from Kirksville, Mo.,
Another beautiful day weather wise except for quite a bit of humidity!! We started out on some more country roads for the first 13.8 miles till we came to a little town called Chula – population 198!! We rode on CR “V”, CR “K”, CR”KK” – they are really original in their naming of the roads around here!! One direction on the cue sheet today was ( “DO NOT Turn RIGHT ON CR”KK”) CONTINUE ST ON CR “KK”?!?!?!? Luckily the SAG wagon was sitting there to make sure we make the correct choice of roads!


Our first rest stop was in a little town of Linneus – the only thing there was a little store, courthouse, and an old locked jail. Someone in the town was nice enough to come by and unlock the jail for us to see –

this is Bob Horn and Leigh exiting the building. The store was the only place all day that we could buy anything.

It was a really tough day climbing wise – we had almost 4600 feet of climb and all on rollers like the ones in this picture. I did really well on them until they got so steep at the end that I felt like I was on a roller coaster – you know how steep it is right before you crest the top and fly down the other side – I walked the very tops of the last 4 hills that I did.

We did at least 99 hills today and there is a park in Kirksville called Park of Thousand Hills!!! You get the idea.

The second SAG was at mile 54.1 and there was no food from there on in to the hotel. A long day with humidity, heat, and climbing. Even our best riders agreed this was a tough day – not much to look at, but the beautiful country side!!
Another picture of a creek with a sandy bottom – I think I prefer the creeks back east with with the rock bottoms and clear water.



This is a sample of our sign-in sheet that we have to sign at every load in the morning, SAG stop, every meal, and every hotel. This helps the staff to keep track of us and know that we all on course and not lost.


Oh, and I must tell you that the derailleur that was held together with rubber bands is still being held together by them because the new one that came wasn’t the right one – here is Norbert with his bike with the make-shift derailleur. Look carefully by his knees to see the rubber bands. (Gerrard certainly can fix anything!!!) Hopefully, tomorrow the right one will come in – he did all of today’s hills with the “rubber band” one.

You know on a trip like this, using a lot of back roads, sometimes you just have to make do with what you have – this is John, who broke his nosepiece on his sunglasses this morning – he was going to use duct tape, but came up with the brilliant idea of using raisins on each side of his nose. I had to take a picture of this – not sure if you can see the raisins or not, but he made it in with them.!!




Today's hurrah goes to my brother Kirk, who could have been named after the town of Kirkville that we are staying in tonight. It gets better - his middle name is Douglas and, no, my parents never heard of Kirk Douglas when they named him because they were too busy raising all of us!!!




Thank God for the safety, health, and energy!!!