Changing Gears: Rey's Ride Across America

July 11th — Willard, MO to Eminence, MO — 142 miles We departed early this morning with one goal in mind: to make Eminence (which would put us one day ahead of schedule so we could build an extra rest day in St Louis). We have been adding on about 25 to 30 miles for the last 3 days to have a chance at this. We are pushing through wonderful scenery of small rural residential communities with horses or cows grazing in the front or back yards of these homes. There are rolls of hay in the green fields and rolling hills in the background. It seems like this is a beautiful place to live if you like the country, but services are few and far between.

The secondary roads in Missouri are narrow with very little or no shoulder so I am being extra careful of vehicles and making sure I am not getting in the motorists’ way, although in some spots it is rather impossible. I have been taught and read that it is wiser to take more road so that you are in better view of the motorists, and they pass you with more care. I do believe in that theory and have been testing it out a little to see what motorists do, and I can tell you that the more you stay to the right the more they will pass you with higher speeds and get closer to you at the same time. But if I take another foot of road to the left, vehicles will slow down and take more care in passing you. Sometimes this theory doesn't work though and you may put yourself in more danger by applying this technique in the wrong areas. Either way, I try to feel out a road and make my decisions hour by hour depending on the terrain of the road, volume of traffic and just the feel of how vehicles are treating me.

At the end of this ride, about 5 miles before Eminence, I was greeted by a 12+% grade climb, not a fun thing to do when you have 135 miles under your belt. I made it up fine but was pretty much spent for the day. I think we have arrived in the Ozark mountains :). Just over 10 hours on the bike today.