83.58km. 1,053m ascent. 4h21 ride time
We gained a short term Co-lodger last night. Hans-Udo arrived shortly after midnight and left again at the break of dawn. He is racing the TransAmerica bike race
He looked really worn out and almost asleep on his feet. Maybe it would have been a challenge I would take on 30 years ago but now, when I see how much pleasure the touring version is, I wonder why they do it
A later start than planned as I managed to lock my water bottles inside the hostel and deposit the key at the Town Hall before realising 😱. As it is Juneteenth holiday in the USA, no one was working at Town Hall. I managed to borrow a piece of wire from a neighbour and fished the key back out of the deposit box 😅
The southerly wind was gentle and not against us for once as we were heading east, that combined with some shade from trees made today’s ride really enjoyable especially as we now have some climbing to do
We are well into the rolling hills of Missouri. Most riders we have met found them very tiring but I,at least, am used to lots of short climbs and we both thoroughly enjoyed the day. It did get hit towards the end, but the wind remained cooling.
We rolled into Marshfield around 13:30 and went to the Parks division to arrange our campsite but, of course they were closed for Juneteenth 🤬. So we called the police and they came down to North Park and opened the toilets and showers at the fairgrounds for us. 🤩
Even though there are 2 taps, they both ran cold 🥶 but when it is this warm that is not a problem
We set up camp and went to the supermarket to get supplies for supper and breakfast
