Into the Ozarks
The ride on Thursday began with heading over to Mike’s house to return the key to the Ash Grove Community Center (where I slept). His and other homes in the neighborhood already had fall decorations and pumpkins on display, so the town looked good.
Marcus and Kirsty were cooking breakfast on their own while I met Charlie at The Copper Grill restaurant. I had been told by Mike to order the “special sandwich” which is not on the menu. He said his wife Wendy gets it all the time and is a great deal for $2.66, including tax. Bacon, egg, cheese and hash browns on Texas toast. However, when I mentioned it to the waitress, who has been there for years, she had no idea what I was talking about, or at least acted like it. “You know, the ‘special sandwich’…the one Wendy orders all the time.”–I thought for sure if I dropped a name it would help. It took a long while, but I finally got her to admit that the sandwich existed. I’m not sure why it was such a battle, but I felt victorious in the end.
Today’s 52 mile ride was the true start of riding into the Ozarks. After the mountain passes out west and the flats of Kansas I was wondering what this was going to be like. I had an idea though because when I looked at the Adventure Cycling elevation profile it looked like a constant uphill/downhill pattern.
The winds were light and the temperature began to warm up after a cold overnight. There were hardly any clouds, so it was a great morning to be out. Not far from Ash Grove is the town of Walnut Grove. Here I stopped at the store, followed shortly after by Marcus and Kirsty and then Charlie. I didn’t really need anything but it was one of the few stores along the route for the day. A couple of older guys came up and asked the usual questions about the trip. One had a Cardinals hat on so that led to some good baseball talk.
A bit later I found myself ahead of the other three and also found that the hills weren’t too bad. It was good to have some downhills again and also nice that the uphills weren’t of the two to four hour climb variety.
At one point I got to the top of a hill when a woman was just arriving home and moving the trash can back from the roadside. She asked if I needed any water, which I didn’t, but then said she also had cider, which sounded great. Her name was Susan and she told me over the glass of cold apple cider how she and her husband had wanted to help out cyclists on the route and I told her about my own trip. It was a nice unexpected late morning break.
The rest of the day’s ride was fantastic and I liked how the hills weren’t the issue that I thought they were going to be. I can’t say they were overly enjoyable, but it really wasn’t that bad. Maybe the previous 56 days were good preparation. I’m sure tougher days are ahead, however.
When I arrived in Marshfield, it wasn’t exactly pleasant. It’s only listed at around 6,000 people, but it’s along the interstate and there are the usual chain businesses and lots of traffic around. But once you got away from the busy part it wasn’t so bad.
We were able to camp under the “Centennial Building” pavilion at the fairgrounds where they hold the rodeo, which was a nice spot for the evening.
(Last week I mentioned that I had started watching a movie called Inspired to Ride, which documents a race that took place in 2014 of the Trams Am route I’m riding. The rider’s stories are interesting and the winner finished the 4,200 miles in less than 18 days. I saw the rest of it and it’s highly recommended.)