Out of the Hobbit Hole: Rest Day in Marshfield, MO

When taking a rest day today crossed my mind my initial thought was "Your last rest day was much too recent to take another one!" I can't believe it's been 9 days since my last break! It feels like 4 or 5 days ago! Honestly, the days have seriously started to bleed into each other. My routine is so similar every morning. When I'm camping I always hit the road by 8 am regardless of how far I'm riding. My endurance energy levels have taken a dramatic upturn too. The thought of a 50 mile ride often sounds too short and I find myself setting goals of 65-75 miles instead. Instead of a piddling 7 mph my speed has increased to about 10 mph and I'm able to cover the same amount of ground in a noticeably shorter time. Of course that has as much to do with the terrain as it does my leg strength. Looking back, I truly believe that the Appalachians were the hardest part of the ride. The Ozarks may be almost as bad but I find that, generally speaking, the roads are not as curved. I remember riding the ascent out of Hayter's Gap, VA. The road twisted and turned as I ascended. You'd see a seriously high grade ahead of you for about 300 feet and think "The road can't keep ascending at this grade much past that bend." But you'd get to the top, turn the corner, and find that the ascent continues another 300-ish feet. Often, there would be between 5 and 6 of those curves. By the time you hit number 4 your legs would be seriously feeling the burn and when you hit numbers 5 and 6 you'd often use some choice words to express your surprise at the length of the ascent. In the Ozarks, you see almost all of the ascents at once and can prepare yourself mentally for the full stretch.

Anyway, on to the details! On the ride to Sebree I bumped into 2 other touring cyclists named Monica and Rachel (and I am literally just now realizing how funny it is that they were named thusly!). They were sitting atop a hay bale just for the fun of it. Chatted for a couple of minutes and then departed leaving them behind. After arriving in Sebree, KY I stopped at a local church which had set up a hostel for cyclists in the basement of their building. Showers, mattresses, a full kitchen, etc. Another cyclist named Devin was there. The pastor, a friendly guy named Bob, informed me that all the cyclists were welcome to dine with him and his wife, Violet, following the Wednesday evening program at the church. I went to a small prayer group that evening. All we did was pray over a printed sheet of all the prayer needs in the congregation and over myself and the other cyclists with me for safety and for the Lord to use my ride in the fight against ALS. After that, Monica and Rachel arrived, having been spotted by Pastor Bob and talked into staying the night at the hostel. Dinner was fantastic! After eating, Violet brought out hordes of cycling memorabilia starting all the way from the 70s when they'd first started hosting cyclists. It was inspiring to hear all the stories of people they'd met headed across the country on bicycle and made me feel not quite so small or crazy.

The following morning I finally exited Kentucky! Taking that ferry across the Ohio River was a memorable event. I met a cyclist named Steven and his wife, Mary. Steven was riding unloaded along the route while his wife navigated more major roads in their RV. They'd started with a larger group but gradually all of them had quit and gone separate ways. Mary had never driven an RV before and with the obscurity of most of the small towns we pass through she was having an adventure of her own trying to figure out how to get such a large vehicle to the destination. About 3 hours into the ride we stopped at a small café in Clay, KY. 3 other touring bicycles were outside so we jumped at the chance to meet more cyclists! Turns out it was Megan (whom I'd been in contact with for several months about this trip), her friend Kristen and Devin! I camped out on Steven and Mary's campsite that night in Cave-in-Rock, IL at the Cave-in-Rock State Park. Having learned about my cause, they paid for my dinner in the quaint little diner that night and got me some dessert too! After dinner we went down to the eponymous cave right on the river front. It was a sight to behold! Robbers had used it as their headquarters back in the 1800s. They would pretend to offer help to weary travelers and proceed to fleece them of many of their possessions. The cave was their hangout and where they stored their loot.

The following night was spent in Ferne Clyffe State Park just down the road a piece from Goreville, IL. Steven and Mary were taking a different route after that day so we wished each other well and parted ways. They generously donated $50 to my cause on our parting. I swung by the grocery store to pick up some dinner to cook and on the way to my campsite I bumped into Devin who told me that Megan had had a semi-serious accident on a gravel road and was taken to a doctor's office. They were trying to find a cheaper way to transport her to a hospital than an ambulance. She wasn't in critical condition or anything, just a little bit cut up and unable to ride for a little while. They ended up renting a car and transporting her to a hospital in Indiana. Real bummer. She won't be able to ride for a little while but is planning to resume the trip after recovering.

I think I'd forgotten to mention the elderly couple from the Netherlands whom I had bumped into in White Mills. They were nearby when I had my accident with the dogs and we all stayed the night in Fordsville. Well I bumped into them again in Ferne Clyffe. They'd had to order a replacement part for one of their bicycles and were stuck there for about 4 days while they waited for it to be shipped to a local gas station in Goreville. Ferne Clyffe is a nice little park. If you ever get a chance to camp there, take it! The site comes with showers but they are a pretty long walk from the primitive sites so be prepared to walk about 1-1/4 miles. I got incredibly frustrated and spent almost an hour and a half walking around the blasted area trying to find where the showers were. I was about to give up when the couple from the Netherlands came along and they were headed to the showers themselves and offered to show me where they were.

The next morning I was debating whether to try for Chester, IL or Murphysboro (which was considerably closer). There was a Walmart in Carbondale that had asked me to stop by and say hello to them and a bike shop that I wanted to stop at before hitting the Ozarks so I opted to shoot for Murphysboro instead. Had a fantastic lunch at Moe's Southwest Grill with the manager of the Walmart and one of her assistant managers. Then I headed off to find the bike shop. The shop was across the street from an Amtrak train station and as the mechanic was looking over Fledge, a train pulled in. The last bit of the trip had been hard, lonely and less than ideal in terms of weather. When the train pulled in, a large part of me wanted to simply leave everything in the bike shop, jump on that train and then find out what transfers I needed to make to get back to Baltimore, MD. I didn't, though. That night in Murphysboro, it started to pour. I found myself in a Taco Bell/KFC franchise feeling cold, wet, alone and very discouraged. When I posted about all this on Facebook the supportive comments started flowing in and customers in the restaurant probably looked at me funny as I got all sniffly and teary-eyed reading the kind, gracious, supportive words of my friends. I pulled up my Warm Showers app and found, miraculously, that there was a lady in Murphysboro who was willing to host traveling cyclists. I had no running water apart from a spigot next to her house but I had a warm, dry place to stay the night and charge my phone up.

The following day I set a new record for myself! 83.5 miles from Murphysboro, IL to Farmington, MO! Bumped into Devin at the tail end of the ride. I made my way to a cycling hostel called Al's Place. Fantastic hostel! $20 donation requested but it's so worth it! A bed, a shower, laundry facilities-- essentially a cycle tourist's dream! Nice homey atmosphere! I grabbed the second to last bed as a group from Adventure Cycling was staying the night there also. After getting settled I enjoyed a large meal at a local Chinese restaurant and had a nice chat with the delivery guy. Great sleep that night!

By this point the weather had been cool and cloudy/rainy for 4 days. Cloudy is a great condition for riding in mountains but it has serious emotional side-effects as well. I'd been fighting gloominess for a while. I reached Centerville around 4:30 and set up camp near a couple of other cycle tourists from Switzerland. We were in the town park which has no bathrooms or showers. The gracious owners of the only restaurant in town let me bide my time after eating and I dove into Lord of the Rings for a few hours and went to bed shortly after dark.

While I was staying in Centerville the Adventure Cycling group had stayed a few miles east of me in Lesterville. They caught up with me during the ride from Centerville to Summersville, though, when I got my second flat tire. One of my inner tubes was unusable so I ended up having to use both spare tubes to get back on the road. They helped me get ready to roll again and I rode a good distance with them before they stopped in Eminence. I kept plowing ahead to Summersville and arrived there in the mid-afternoon. Found out about a friendly motel owner who lets cyclists take a shower in one of her rooms for $5. I jumped at that chance and then set up camp in yet another town park. Met another cycle tourist named Lydia at the tiny little library in town. She had left Colorado Springs and was headed for Florida. I grabbed my dinner at the tiny little grocery store in town and ate it back at my campsite. A word of advice: NEVER eat canned, room temperature asparagus. Nasty! Yech!

The following morning, I was planning to hang out at the library in town before taking off to Bendavis, MO but when I found out the library wasn't going to open until 11 am I decided to make a mad dash for Marshfield. Long ride! Longer than I was thinking! 86.8 miles according to Google maps! A new personal record! I was thinking it was about 77 miles but ended up tacking almost another 10 on top of that! Arrived in Marshfield around 6:30, set up camp at some fairgrounds and then decided to reward myself with a nice dinner at Pizza Hut. Afterwards, I hit the hay as soon as I got back to camp.

Woke first thing this morning and headed over to the Holiday Inn Express in which Rising Sun Snacks rented a room for me. Now to spend some time napping and watching TV!