July 25 - Lesterville, MO to Farmington, MO

Michael

This morning we started out at 5:30 a.m., when Paula's Restaurant opened for breakfast. We arrived there 5 minutes early, but incredibly enough we were not the first people there.  An older gentleman was waiting in his pickup truck and kindly told us that they would be open in 5 minutes.  In many of these smaller towns, we find an older group of gentlemen who appear to have breakfast every morning in the same restaurant. What intrigues me is that, so far, we have never seen an older group of gentlewomen meeting for breakfast in these restaurants.

Paula was very attentive and offered to fill our water bottles with ice and water even before we asked. This was very helpful as bed and breakfasts don't usually have an ice machine. Our breakfasts were all excellent and we were properly nourished to face the day.

Today we did something new, brave, and adventurous... at least for us. We decided not to follow the Adventure Cycling Association's map for the first 20 miles. Our hostess at the bed and breakfast, Kathy, suggested that we take a different route that would be less hilly.  Indeed the hills were much more rolling and much less steep. Although traffic was heavier than we would like and there were no shoulders, we definitely appreciated the rolling hills with no steep inclines.

We had lunch at a Subway in Pilot Knob around 10 am and then proceeded on our way to Farmington. Just before Pilot Knob the shoulders on the road became much wider. This was very much appreciated. For the last few days we have found ourselves concentrating on traffic, on staying close to the right side of the lane, and on staying in the rather narrow shoulder. This makes viewing and enjoying the scenery much more difficult, if not downright impossible. So although this part of Missouri is truly very beautiful, we really didn't pay that much attention to the beauty at all.  The traffic, the road conditions, and the shoulders are probably the biggest reasons we have all been taking very few pictures in the last week. 

As the day wore on, it did get noticeably hotter, but not nearly as hot as it has been over the last few weeks. The temperature was only expected to reach the low 90s today. However that didn't stop us from enjoying the following sign that we saw in front of a church.

Upon reaching Farmington Eric went straight to the hotel. But Gloria and I went straight to the bike shop so a mechanic could adjust our derailleurs, adjust our brakes, and get Gloria's handlebar tightened. Ever since the accident last weekend, her handlebars have shifted off center at every opportunity. Hopefully the bike shop today will have fixed this permanently.  L.T. at Trans Am Cyclery quickly took care of our problems. The charges were very reasonable.  We both left much relieved that our bicycles were quiet, our brakes weren't rubbing, our derailleurs were properly adjusted, and Gloria's handlebar was once again straight.

Tonight we had dinner at the Pasta House.  All of us enjoyed our dinner - we also enjoyed an outstanding piece of chocolate cake.

Tomorrow is the first day of a long list of people joining us.  We are looking forward to seeing all of them, but to be honest I am little nervous about our ability to keep the blog up to date with all our visitors.  So if we fall behind, know that we are doing well, enjoying the company of our visitors, and having a great time. But we will catch up... eventually.  How's that for advance rationalization?  Also please be aware that our posts are not always in order.  

Life continues to be great and we are enjoying every bit of it. Although to be honest,
my favorite part of almost every day is arriving at our hotel knowing we have safely arrived and that the ride for the day is over.