Being deep in the hills the only band we could play while we tried our first Missouri brewed beer was the Ozark Mountain Daredevils - Jacquie Blue. Go on,u-tube it. We drew the line at watching Deliverance however. A great day (because the hills were back) assessed as a 9.5
Yep the Ozarks have arrived. This was a 125km ride that covered 1800m of vertical climbs, most of which occurred in the last 50km. The hills are shortish but have gone from a gentile 5 or 6% in the Rockies to a more challenging 10 to 15% here. Why is it that we never have enough gears when we get into the hills? Despite the hills this was a fantastic ride - not too hot, winds that helped us most of the day, green, good roads and plenty to keep us amused. Being a Sunday we decided to count the number of churches we passed on our travels. We gave up at 50 - Howie ran out of fingers. This really is the bible belt of the USA. All very friendly people who take the time to chat with us whenever we stop. Being deep in the hills the only band we could play while we tried our first Missouri brewed beer was the Ozark Mountain Daredevils - Jacquie Blue. Go on,u-tube it. We drew the line at watching Deliverance however. A great day (because the hills were back) assessed as a 9.5
1 Comment
The weather forecast said this would be a cooler day with the chance of thunderstorms and rain. They were not wrong. Bang on our departure time of 7am the thunderstorms arrived and the rain poured down. So we got another cup of coffee (yes it was drip) and waited for it to abate while admiring the lighting display. Two hours later we were on our way and within 10km Missouri welcomed us - rain gone, cloud cover, lower temperatures and a slight head wind. Perfect. We are most certainly going into the Ozarks with the hills getting more frequent and steeper. On our way into Ash Grove the local bank (Old Missouri Bank) was putting on a "thank you to the community" lunch and asked us to share some food with them. Talk about asking locusts into your wheat field... delicious pulled pork rolls with beans, chips and drinks. Thank you to Mark and Jason for your generosity. Our ride has now crossed the old route 66 and the hotel we are staying at was on the original path. Chuck Berry blasting out "Route 66" while we quenched our thirst was an excellent way to end this 155km day. Judged as an 8. The weather continues to treat us kindly with cloud cover, temps in the early 80's and a light breeze. It made for a great days riding over the 120km to Mountain Grove with the long straights on Kansas being replaced by rolling hills that seem to be getting steeper. In 2 days we will be in the heart of the Ozarks so we will find out then how steep they really are. The corn fields are much higher here and the spring flowers seem to have hung on longer. The highlight for the day was getting to ride the first 40km on the old route 66 road which has now been replaced with a major interstate 6 lane highway that runs parallel to it. Very few cars on the old route and thoughts of Elvis, Chuck, Johnny and other greats of the 60's rolled through the group over this trip down memory lane. Riding, rock and roll and a few beers .... near perfect and it gets a 9 today. After a few long days we had a day in Pittsburg to pass the time, have a swim, find something other than burgers to eat and do some work (Trish !!). The hot weather had taken its toll and a day of doing mostly nothing was in order. After weeks of burgers and steaks (preferably chicken fried steak or chicken fried chicken) we needed a change and ... we found a Thai restaurant. Yippee. Yellow, red, green - whatever colour curry we wanted was on order. Eat up Wortho. The pool also got a workout as the temperature hovered in the 90's. Tomorrow it is forecast to rain and get cooler - now that would be a nice change.
No we didn't take a wrong turn and end up in Pittsburg Pennsylvania (Bob), this is Pittsburg, Kansas and a chance to recover after another 190km ride. Kansas was feeling magnanimous today and gave us a south westerly wind on a day when we were predominantly heading east. It made a big difference compared to our introduction to Kansas. The temperature still climbed close to 100F and the humidity is rising but a tail wind made up for all that. This will be our last ride in Kansas as the Missouri border is just 20km outside Pittsburg. We are also heading in the Osark Range and the hills are appearing again. A much better day and we gave it a 7.5 We picked up a couple of scots, Michael and Gordon, who are riding across the USA on a slightly different course (San Diego to New York). This route intersects ours here in Kansas. They will ride with us with a couple of days while we quiz them on tennis, cricket and Scottish independence. But tomorrow we rest before heading into Missouri. This was a 120km day without Andrea who has abandoned us. With Trish driving for the first half, too much testosterone was on the road and the pace picked up to breaking point. The third dummy spit by the phys-eder calmed things down as we slowed to a cruise into our lunch spot at Cassoday. We again met a number of the Trans Am racers, specifically Adam (USA) and Alec (French). Do you know him Claude? He is from your country. The highlight for Trish was racing passed them on the road. The fact that they planned to do another 120km before stopping didn't matter. Over the day, the cornfields, wheat, grain silo's and trees seemed to disappear to be replaced by endless paddocks and cattle and the hills returned. They call this area the Flinthills of Kansas which is probably a clue. The temperature didn't abate but the wind at least calmed down to a light gale and so we gave the day a 7.5. Tomorrow another big one .... After the length and heat yesterday and our quiet prayers, this was a recovery day. Probably wouldn't have called a 100km ride a "recovery" three months ago but with the wind blowing 20mph from the south west and our route taking us 70km east and 30km south, this was an opportunity to let the wind help us for most of the day. The 30km south wasn't so much fun but that was a small price to pay for the benefit. The temperature stilled climbed to close to 100F but we were done soon after 1pm. When we got to Newton we visited the local bike shop run by James and Heather who are providing support to those mad Trans Am racers we previously mentioned. They had cold beer and whiskey which is pretty good for a bike shop ... After yesterday this was a 7 day. Another long day tomorrow so it may well be an early night and early start to try and miss the heat. It was the summer solstice, the first day of summer in the USA, fathers day here, we rode 190km in 100+F heat, the wind wasn't any help except over the last 6km, we ended up in a town that is "dry" and the only restaurant that was open was subway.... how do you think we are feeling? There are many ways to describe the group but very few of them are about "energised", "raring to go" or "can't wait for tomorrow". This was by far the toughest day include all those climbs in the Rockies. It was also Andrea's last ride before she returns to Perth for 10days to sort out the sale of their business. She is looking forward to that first G&T on the plane and who can blame her. Stirling effort (get it ??). She has promised "I'll be back". The remaining hard men and the token woman Trish (or so Howie described her) will push on without her. Please wind, blow from the west tomorrow? We sleep in hope .... A rest day in Ness City and a chance to catchup with the local Rotary Club who kindly offered to host a lunch for us. Galen and Debbie were the perfect hosts providing a great lasagne meal and a chance to talk with a few of the local Rotarians. This part of Kansas was settled by a large number of Russian/German immigrants a few generations back. The day was also incredibly hot (over 100F) so sitting around the pool enjoying a few drinks with our hosts was a great way to end the rest day. Tomorrow we venture out into the heat again .... After yesterdays long ride, today was scaled back to a relatively easy 89km - except for the wind that decided to accompany us for most of the day. However it was not directly in our faces and Kansas obviously felt generous and turned it through 90 degrees so that it was more across than in front. Thank you Kansas. Straight roads continued however. Only a few highlights on the day. We actually took a bend at about the half way point - what a change and then it turned back again. Two bends in one day. We also met one of the Trans Am racers (Brian). These guys are doing the same route as us but as an unsupported race ie no cars to help. The current leader is an ozzie and is expected to finish inside 20days doing in excess of 300km per day. Brian is just taking it easy and expects to take a whopping 24 days to finish. Lazy. When we got to Ness City we decided to have a swim in the pool as Brian kept riding in the 100F heat. Mad .... This was along day - 167km to be precise. We crossed into Kansas from Colorado at about the 80km mark and low and behold Kansas greeted us with a howling easterly wind. And she stole another hour from us. Trish had obviously checked the forecast the night before and had volunteered to drive for the second half - good choice. This is grain growing country - corn, wheat, barley you name it. The only thing that makes the horizon look anything but straight are the grain silos dotted every 25km or so. At least it gave us something to focus on. The odd "nodding donkey" or stray turtle was all that seemed to break the monotony. We finished in Scott City and managed to find an old 1922 theatre that had been converted into a restaurant. Very high brow for this lot. A fairly long, windy day assessed as a 6. This was another relatively short ride over similar country to yesterday - flat and straight for 98km. It's getting warmer with the temperature topping out close to 90F and the wind strengthening from the south. It seemed a bit harder than yesterday. We did however reach one milestone today, exceeding the half way target of 3,300km since commencing. We stopped for the photo shoot and celebrated with cheap sparkling wine at the end. It is always a good feeling to start counting down rather than counting up. We are in the grain growing area and the flat horizon is broken by the grain silos in each town much like our wheat belt. Not as easy or as much fun as yesterday so we assessed it at a 7. Tomorrow we put in the big miles .... This was a very cruisy 87km ride in flat country with sunny skies and a slight tail wind. So easy it was over and done before lunchtime. So what to do in Ordway for an afternoon? How about meeting some locals? Carol the motel owner, Mike the texas ranch hand, Bill the barman, Cal the Sherrif, Ed the asparagus grower. We met them all and did our best to find out the local gossip and not get arrested. There used to be 120 farmers in the district, now there are less than 20 as most sold their water rights off to the local municipalities for more than their farms were worth. We also rode past our fifth prison (correctional institution) since we started in Colorado. And it aint marijuana possession as it has been legal here for 2 years. A swim in the lake Harry was a chnace to display our white, shrivling bodies. Time to eat more. An excellent day at 9/10. A rest day in Pueblo to do all the last minute things that only a large town can offer - get the bikes serviced and repaired, buy clothes from TJMax, go to a local brewery pub, have a swim in a pool, go to Starbucks. Yes we have fallen victim to the dreaded chain coffee house and resorted to buying coffee from them. Shame of shames ... We were joined by Mike Galinski and his wife Barbara for the evening and day as they were on the way back to New Mexico. Mike was in Perth for a few years and rode with the Subi Sprockets - he still had the shirt. He and Rodney even went for a bike ride just for old times sake. The rest of us just veged. The weather has turned and we will start riding in hotter conditions from now on. Oh for the snow .... After a very tough day yesterday, today was an 80km relatively flat ride into Pueblo. However with the regular navigator on car duty, the rabble managed to find a way to add another 10km to the ride “touring” Pueblo. They had all sorts of excuses but none worth boring you with here. This was a ride to let the legs recover from the monster day yesterday and the average speed testified to that. This is the end of 5 weeks of riding (half way by time) and in this period we have ridden just over 3,100km and climbed just over 24,000 vertical meters (close to 3 Mt Everest’s). All fairly useless information but hey it’s something to put on the CV. For some odd reason we have another rest day tomorrow – probably because this is the last large town for the next 2 to 3 weeks and we need to get the bikes checked over. So bike servicing and last minute shopping. |
The ChallengeTo celebrate Wheelchairs for Kids 30,000th wheelchair, a team of nine people including Trish O'Reilly, CEO of AAMIG will be riding the 6,600km TransAmerica Trail starting in Florence, Oregon on 11 May 2015 and finishing the challenge in Yorktown, Virginia on 19 July 2015. This cycle challenge is about raising awareness of this inspiring charity. To donate, please visit: https://give.everydayhero.com/au/aamig-challenge Archives |