A Blog To Be Named Later

9/28/17

Tunnel Hill, Il > Sebree, KY

Miles Ridden – 103.6

Mileage to date – 2,790.5

I got a chance to talk to John on the phone today. We had not talked since I last saw him in Utah. The events of yesterday warranted a phone call as opposed to our usual text communication. The plan for yesterday was to ride to Sebree, KY and stay at a cycling hostel that was affiliated with a church. It is 104 mile ride from Tunnel Hill where they had camped out the night before. On a typical day, John will usually average about 12-13 miles per hour. At that pace a 100 mile day usually involves a minimum of 8 hours on the bike which is a long day.

John, Heather and Jaime started out as the sun was rising. John noticed that early in the day Jaime’s rear wheel was out of true and was wobbling so badly that the rim was hitting the brake caliper. It kept getting worse as the day wore on. It really impacted how fast Jaime could ride. To make matters worse there are no bike shops in that area of Illinois and Kentucky. At one point, they stopped at gas station and a local started talking to them. John said he was a bit of a redneck but a really nice. This guy mentions to them that he bought his son a road bike and he never uses it. So Jaime half jokingly asks him “well why don’t you let me use his rear wheel”? The guy replies “I guess I could do that”. The next thing John knows Jaime and Heather are in this guy’s truck riding to retrieve the rear wheel. Jaime promises to mail the wheel back to him when he reaches Virginia. I will spare you all the details but Jaime couldn’t switch the real wheel without some help from a bike shop so he strapped his borrowed wheel on his trailer and gutted out the last 20 plus miles.

By this time it was getting late, John rode on ahead looking for the church. It was pitch black and he was a bit nervous because there are no hotels in the county. Sure enough he saw a church with a sign that said “cyclist hostel”. There was an older gentlemen who introduced himself as the retired pastor and he asked John “I hope you don’t mind but we made dinner for you guys”. John said said “I absolutely do not mind!” Due to the late hour John had assumed he would be eating a freeze dried meal. Needless to say he was very happy.

Jaime and Heather showed up shortly afterwards and they all had a delicious dinner with the pastor and his wife. The pastor asked John if he would like some maple syrup with his meal. He pulled a jug from Stowe, Vermont! A friend had brought it to them recently. The pastor and his wife have been at that location since 1979 and have been helping and hosting cyclists ever since. They offered to drive Jaime to a bike shop this morning to get his wheel sorted out.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy states: The term “trail magic” was coined by long-distance hikers to describe an unexpected occurrence that lifts a hiker’s spirits and inspires awe or gratitude. There is no doubt that John, Jaime and Heather experienced some trail magic yesterday through the kindness of strangers.

9/26/17

Ellington, MO > Chester, IL

Miles Ridden – 110.4

Mileage to date – 2,597.9

Another big milestone today for John and team. They have crossed the Mississippi and made it to Chester, Illinois (pop. 8,586). Chester is best known as the birthplace of the creator ( E.C. Segar)of Popeye the Sailor which was one of my favorite cartoons as a child.

Despite climbing over 5,900 feet today John said he felt good riding all day. Also from John – “We decided to call ourselves team heatwave given the temperature seems to approach 90 degrees everyday we ride……it was a beautiful ride, it was like cycling in the Berkshires with wider roads.”

They are staying in another cyclist hostel tonight.

Some photos from today –

9/25/17

Houston, MO > Ellington, MO

Miles Ridden – 69.7

Mileage to date – 2,487.5

John and team pedaled to Ellington, MO (pop. 987) today. Per Wikipedia Ellington was named for a woman (Cliny Huff Ellington) who laid out the town.

John did not have very good internet access today so I don’t have many details on what transpired. He did relay the following –

“We ate lunch at the Dairy Shack which boasted a great milk shake and an excellent selection of 50s era rock sings.”

He also sent the following photo of the Current river part of the Ozark National Scenic River ways –

John, Heather and Jaime are staying at a free bicyclist’s hostel sponsored by the local chamber of commerce-

John also passed along this photo of a house where the plants are growing from the inside-

If all goes according to plan, John will be in Chester, Illinois to tomorrow. Chester is the home of “Popeye”. More on this later!

9/24/17

Ash Grove, MO > Houston, MO

Miles Ridden – 113.1

Mileage to date – 2,417.8

Today’s destination was Houston, MO (pop. 2,081). My original idea for the blog title was “Houston we do not have a problem”. But then John sent this photo –

And it was obvious to me what the title should be.

After an easy day. John and crew ramped up the mileage to 113 miles. They also ascended nearly 6,500 feet of vertical today. They have not done that sort of vertical since Colorado. They also descended nearly 6,300 feet so it was an up and down day. I think this photo from John depicts it well –

Who knew Missouri was such a roller coaster?

What would a blog post be without a random or 2 factoid from Wikipedia about the destination? So here goes. Houston is the capital seat of the county of Texas. Houston was named after Sam Houston. Houston, Texas was also named after Sam Houston.

John’s account of the last couple of days. “The night before last we stayed with a warm showers host named Nathan Hugh’s in Pittsburg. He’s a design student at Pittsburgh State University and he rode with us to Ash Grove. When we arrived there we were all elated to discover a cyclist hostel next to the town park. Our free accommodations came with a kitchen, cot, showers, bath and a nice collection of bike tools. We met another cyclist we had been following for some time named Josh Morrow. This morning Nate returned to school and Josh headed to Springfield, MO. Once again leaving the cycling trio(John, Jaime and Heather) to head off for another day of great riding. Today was pretty much a roller coaster of a ride from beginning to end. We all had a great time and we’re fortunate to avoid any mechanical issues and the weather was pretty great. We managed to arrive safely to our destination here in Houston, MO.”

Here is Nathan’s roommate that made a bicycle

our of wood-

A couple more photos from the day-