Roller Coaster Ride

Whoo-whee. Today was a hard day of bike riding! We finally got off US 60 and angled northwest. The terrain changed almost immediately to a series of arrow-straight roads and a rapid-fire series of steep, short hills. So rather than long climbs on 4% grades, as we had been doing the last few days, we had short climbs on 10% or 11% grades.  For those of you familiar with Henderson Harbor, think Babcock hill repeated over and over. For those of you familiar with the MS150, think Buscher/Bastrop state parks with hills twice as high. The steeper climbs sap your legs and your speed, since the uphills are so slow (8-9 mph) and the downhills are so short that there is no time to recover.

Hard to see from this photo but the roads are undulating ribbons of sawtooth hills

In Mansfield we accidentically encountered the Laura Ingalls Wilder house, a small campus/museum where she apparently lived or something and perhaps did some interesting stuff. We were barely interested enough to snap a photo. Just down the road from the Laura Ingalls Wilder House is the Laura Ingalls Wilder RV park and the Laura Ingalls Wilder barbecue shack.

Something interesting might have happened here

About halfway through today's ride we reached Marshfield, Missouri, a milestone of sorts for us. It marks the point where we leave our DIY route and join the Adventure Cycling Association Trans-America Trail, and the unofficial one-third point in our journey. The ACA route is well-marked with official signs. We even saw another cyclist, fully loaded and headed east.

Bicycle Route 76 is the Trans-America Trail, named for the ACA founder Greg Siple's original "Bikecentennial": a cross-country ride he promoted in 1976

One of the challenges of credit-card style touring is finding motels that are spaced the right distance apart. When we were looking for today's stop, there was very little to be found in the area. The town we are in -- Greenfield -- has exactly one motel, the Oak Park Motel. It advertises $35 (cash only) for a double room. We were a little leery, but since there were no other options we went for it. Now that we're here it's pretty much what you'd expect: cinder block walls, orange shag carpet, and of course no wi-fi or shampoo. But the beds appear to be bug-free, the shower works, and there is a convenience store next door so happy hour is on. Life is good.

Color TV! Livin' Large!

Decor: "Dorm room deluxe", ca. 1974

It being Sunday, the three restaurants in town are closed. There is a gas station several blocks away that offers made-to-order pizza, so we settled for that. Tomorrow we will be at Tom's sister's house so we are looking forward to a proper dinner.

Today's ride: 108 miles, 6102 feet of climbing. Ouch.

Letters vs. Numbers