Day 27: Chester, IL to Pilot Knob, MO (79 miles, 1345 total)

Blasting into Missour'a! We are officially west of the Mississippi River and into our fourth state, and today we got our first taste of the Ozark Mountains.

The curse of the flats continued to plague us today. Early on in the day, AK flatted her rear on a staple-like piece of wire; it actually punctured her tube in two places. So, that is a flat everyday for three days in a row. We've got the jinx bad, and as result I spent sometime patching the tubes tonight.

We rolled out of Chester at about 8AM and headed for the river. The route took us right past the comemorative statue of Popeye, so we stopped for a photo before heading to Missouri. The bridge across to MO was big and shoulderless with one lane for each direction, so we timed our passing carefully and hoped for a patient driver to come up behind us. I was wishing for an Amish Buggy; I knew we could stay ahead of them and be fine as long as we could survive the heckling. Regardless, we lucked out with a sympathetic driver in a red pick-up.

For the 10 miles after Chester, we cruised flat farmland. As we approached the beginning of the Ozarks, we entered the town of St. Mary and AK scored her flat.

So far the Ozark Mountains seem pretty mellow. We've read that typically eastbound cyclists have more trouble with them than westbound riders. This is because other than the non-steep Rockies, this is the eastbound rider's first exposure to up-and-down mountains. Have fun with Virginia!

Speaking of eastbound riders, we passed a few today. They were not very chatty and not one of the three had a helmet. Smart move.

Anyway, the rest of the ride for the day was relatively uneventful. Throughout the day, Anne Katherine sprayed three dogs on vacation from Kentucky. (From AK - I had a tough day physically today and as a result, my patience for charging dogs was nonexistent. You step on the pavement in my direction, you'll get it in the face, dogs. Go back to Kentucky.)

We stopped in Farmington for lunch and headed for Pilot Knob. Adventure Cycling recommended an alternate route to Pilot Knob due to heavy traffic on the mapped route. The alternate was four miles longer, but we went with it anyway. Turns out the alternate had plenty of traffic too (especially on the 32 on the way into Bismark). Fortunately, there was a wide shoulder, but it was full of tire-flatting debris.
When we finally made it into town, we decided we came far enough to justify another hotel. Plus, storm clouds on the horizon made it an easy decision. AK called the only hotel in town to ask for directions; that was a waste of time...

Now, I am gonna take a minute to vent about something that has been driving us nuts. On numerous occasions, AK and I have asked locals in various towns how to arrive at their place of work. We usually say something like, "We are at the intersection of Route 21 and Route W; how do we get to your place." All too often, these people don't know where that is. It takes a lot of patience to not say something like, "There are only two highways in this entire town, how could you not know where that is?" But anyway...

After flagging down a cable technician to get usefull directions to the hotel, we were on our way. Soon we arrived at the Fort Davidson Motel which looks like it could have starred in National Lampoon's Vacation.

We are making great progess, but recently the daily mileage has also been tough on us. Today was a long day, but tomorrow we are going less than 60 miles to a campground. It is funny to say so, but that should be a nice break.

Anyway, today was a tough one, but we are still having fun. We've heard that the journal has experienced growing popularity. Hopefully our number of donations to the FFB have increased as well!

By the way, so far Missouri seems packed full of Chatty McChatersons. Today, we had more people inquire about our efforts than any other day.

Oh, we also heard a turkey gobble off in the distance today. Awesome. Since the beginning of this trip, I have decided that someday I need to own the following pets (in addition to Maggie, of course): one llama, one chicken, a turkey, and a small goat. A goat is nice to have for purely comedic reasons, and once you hear a turkey gobble, you've got to own one. And when I go on my next bike tour, I'll send them all over to stay with my mother.

Jeff