Houston, MO to Fair Grove, MO – 79 miles
Yesterday was a slow morning after staying up too late enjoying the fire at Wes and Judy’s. We woke up at around 830 and found a breakfast basket that Judy had dropped off out front. I never had the pleasure of meeting her, but she seems like a fantastic lady. We saw Wes right as we were about to leave so we thanked him for the hospitality. Completely forgot to grab a photo of him or even of the place! Oh well, take my word for it, it was awesome.
We got on the bikes at around 10. The ride was really enjoyable even though it was littered with bike issues and rain. I find the rides with people after riding by yourself for a few days are always pretty fun.
Our plan was to ride at least to Marshfield which was about 60 miles. I contacted a Warmshowers host about 10 miles past Marshfield near Fair Grove. I knew it would make for an ambitious day, but I figured the incentive of a dry place to sleep would help us push through.
The first bike issue happened when Max’s tire blew out. I’ve never seen a bigger hole in a tube in my life. He swapped out the tube and the rest of us took the opportunity to take a nice break. Shortly after that, while climbing a hill his rear derailleur started acting up and he had to walk up the rest of the way. Turned out his quick release had come loose – a bit disconcerting, but a quick, easy fix.
It rained on and off most of the ride. It seemed like just as it would start to rain hard enough to make you decide to stop to put on your rain coat it would die down again shortly after putting it on. When it wasn’t raining it was pretty muggy, so continuing to ride with a coat on made for an unpleasant ride to say the least.
We stopped and ate at a diner in Hartville around 2 pm, about 40 miles in for the day. As we pulled up there was another cyclist outside riding West to East from San Fran to Yorktown. It was nice to talk to him and hear what we had coming up the next couple days. The food at the diner was fantastic. They served breakfast all day so I ordered a western omelette. Topped it off with a slice of Oreo pie. It’s nice being able to eat a lot of food and feel like you are using all of the calories that you consume.
We still had quite a bit of ground to cover after we ate. I had received word back from the Warmshowers host, Jay, saying that he’d be happy to have us. The lunch stop combined with the mechanical issues made it look like we wouldn’t get there until around 7 pm. He said no problem and that there’d be food, beer, and warmshowers waiting for us when we got in. I could tell we were going to like Jay from the start!
On our way into Marshfield it started pouring. Hardest rain I’ve ridden through yet. That combined with some bad traffic had us seeking shelter when we got into Marshfield.
Things cleared up a bit as we waited out the rain and we made a push for the last 14 miles to Jay’s house. Somewhere along the way we lost Dries and when I turned my phone on to figure out how to get to Jay’s house I got a text from him saying that he’d gotten a flat. We all felt bad that we had ridden on and didn’t notice him fall behind. What made it worse was about 10 minutes after we pulled into Jay’s it started pouring again. He arrived about 20 minutes or so after we did.
Jay whipped up some pasta for us and we all ate too much. Him and his wife Kelly live in a wood cabin that Jay’s father built. Really cool house. He’s a bronze and copper metal worker and showed me some pictures of some of the ornamental items he makes.
Really great talking to Jay. He enjoys skiing and has a place in Steamboat, so we talked quite a bit about that. Got me anxious to ride next season already.
We didn’t get to bed until around midnight. Today the plan was to try to ride about 100 miles to Pitsburg, KS. Not sure we’ll make it that far with the slow start, but we will see!!
