We wound up riding 94 miles. The last 30 were made more difficult because of the terrible heat and annoying wind-in-the-face. Yet the final stretch was also made easier because all our packs were in the van with mom, who had driven down to meet us. She'll be our sag wagon for a couple days and so far it has been great. She made beef stew and a salad for supper, followed by a kind of banana cream pie. Delicious.
But before all that, our day got off to a foreboding start when we saw a sign saying that our road was closed six miles ahead. It would have been really long to follow the detour. Plus, I figured we could ford any stream with our bikes, if need be, while also knowing that it is so dry that hardly any of these streams even have water.
Anyway, the bridge was quite out as you can see by the photo, and the river had a lot of water. Fortunately, no work was happening on a Sunday and a small footbridge allowed us safe passage. Obstacle overcome.
On a street corner in Pittsburg, we were met by my cousin Tarah and her husband Tim and their son Tage. They had driven up from Fayetteville, Ark., to meet us and bring us Gatorade, cookies and Goldfish. Soon after is when mom showed up, and we had a little picnic and photo session right there on the corner.
In Golden City, where we eventually arrived, we set up in the nice town park where mom made her great supper. But soon, the pastor of a local church invited us spend the night in the church, so that's where we are now. It is nice and cool in here.
Tomorrow we'll really start to get into the Ozarks and hope to get to Marshfield.
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