July 21 - Everton, MO to Marshfield, MO

Michael

Today the weather was very hot.  That seems to be the general pattern lately. Regretfully we haven't even gotten into August when it usually gets really hot.

We left Running Spring Farm this morning at 5:45 a.m.  Not as early as we hoped but certainly an early start.

Gloria played superwoman today.  She rode the first 40 miles and then drove the SAG car the rest of the day.  40 miles is very impressive for a woman who was hit by a car last Sunday.

The scenery has changed significantly in the last couple days. It seems like the only roads in this part of Missouri are roller coaster like hills that go up and down, over and over and over. The good news is that you usually get a steep or fairly steep downhill to help you get up the next hill. The bad news is that you're on your own for the rest of the way up that next hill.  Fifteen seconds after you finish climbing an uphill you get to start all over again because the downhills only last about 15 seconds.

We all think the hills of western Missouri are much prettier than the flatter sections of eastern Kansas and the really flat sections of central and western Kansas. There are still large cattle ranches and farms, but they are not the only thing you can see.  This section of Missouri has quite a few trees in these roller coaster hills.

We met several interesting characters today. One, or two I guess, were a running back and a quarterback from a 1960 something football team that are still best friends years later.  What was especially gratifying to see was that one of them was a white man and one of them was a black man. Friendships like that were not nearly as common in 1960s small town Missouri.

The other characters were a young lady and a young man who are bicycling across the United States who had started in Yorktown VA. (However I guess at the age of this group just about everybody we meet is a young lady or young man.)  She was probably 10 miles ahead of him. I'm a little worried that after we start out tomorrow we won't see Gloria until we get to our destination.

I stopped about every two miles for the last 10 miles because of the heat today. We were all extremely grateful for the ice and water that Gloria was carrying in the SAG car. But we made it. 

We had a fine dinner at a local restaurant and now it's time to head for bed. If you haven't gotten up at 4 a.m. on a regular basis, I can tell you from personal experience that 4 a.m. comes very quickly. And so another day comes to a close. Life is indeed great.