My Cross-Country Bike Tour

All right, so I’m officially not in Kansas anymore. Kansas wasn’t quite what I expected. I didn’t get to pull uninterrupted centuries through the state, I didn’t get to visit the Cosmosphere and Space Center, and—perhaps worst of all—I wasn’t able to reenact my “Fields of Gold” daydream. Oh well…better luck next time.

Moving on…today I had a brief encounter with another flooded road on Missouri’s side of the state line and I had flat tire number five near a small town called Jasper. The terrain is starting to get hillier as I head towards the Ozarks. I’ve been given varying reports on the difficulty of the Ozarks: some westbound cyclists I’ve asked simply shrug them off as no big deal while others cringe at their mention. One thing that everyone seems to agree on, however, is that they’re quite steep. I guess I’ll just have to see for myself.

Throughout my trip I’ve also been hearing unpleasant things about the motorists in Missouri, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for me. As far as I can tell, the people are just as friendly as in any other state that I’ve passed through and, given how the roads around here are so snakelike and hilly, I’ve found the motorists to be of above-average patience. On a random note, I’ve discovered that some of the highways in Missouri are lettered (for example, highway “A” or “HH”) instead of numbered. It’s very strange.

Tonight I’m staying at the Running Spring Farm Hunting Preserve and Inn, where the owner, Bill, has kindly allowed me to sleep on the couch for the night. Looks like the clouds are clearing up—it’s starting to get hot and humid again, so I’m glad to be able to spend the night in an air-conditioned room.