eLIFELIST.com Bike Trip

July 23rd Day 24

We left Houston, MO at 10AM, a little later than expected.  Not 10 miles out of Houston we ran into the Biers-Ariel family from David California.  The family of four is biking across the country with a petition to take to Washington, DC with some proposals for the government regarding Global Warming.  Unfortunately we didn't have the chance to speak very long with them as they had not eaten yet that morning and as they said "we usually yack more, but we're hungry and all yacked out after talking with Mike.  (the English guy from Boston that has been riding before and after us for over a week now)  Mikes usually gets out before we do but we always catch him before lunch.  

Maybe 20 miles later we ran into Jeff who was biking from Oregon to Virginia.  Jeff had biked the first 3,000 miles of his journey with his sister but she has just recently left because of obligations somewhere else.  Jeff is a graduate of the University of Maryland and is doing a tree study during his trek.  He basically takes a sampling of trees every so often and as he said "does a lot of technical nerdy science stuff on them."  It was good running in to him as he said he was going to stay at the Horse Creek Inn at Houston and 10 miles back I found I still had the key from our room in my pocket.  Jeff said he would take it back to Pony and Eya.  Check out his site here.  

We had a great lunch in Walnut Grove, MO at "Mom's Family Cafe".  We were the only people there and I had a huge stack of pancakes, Brent, Chicken fingers and fries and both of us had a piece of cherry pie.  "Mom" was definitely in the back cooking and Mike also joined us for a bit at lunch.

Big day of running into people biking the other way.  We ran into Daniel and Nisse, a father and son from Sweden doing the trek from West to East.  They were really nice guys and seemed to be having a great time on their trek.  They warned us that the hills further west in Missouri were pretty rough.  

We huffed it on the last 15 miles to Fair Grove and along the way we ran into "Wiry Mike."  Mike just graduated from college and was on a severe deadline to finish his trip to start his new job as a trauma nurse in Harrisburg, Virginia.  Because of his deadline Mike was averaging between 130-160 miles a day.  WHICH IS INSANE.  He confirmed that the hills got rough further west, and when a guy that's averaging that much mileage in a day said that our ears really perked up.  

We arrived in Fair Grove, MO where we were scheduled to stay at the Historical Society, which we'd heard was a great place to camp.  It was a historical society with 18th century buildings and the society lets cyclists camp there and they unlock the bathrooms (which had a shower) for use.  We had a great dinner at Hill Top Pizza, literally the one restaurant in town.  Cheesecake on a stick finished the meal and then we called it a night.  We had a race to see who could set up their tent fastest at the sun was going down and believe it or not we tied.  Overall, it was an excellent day of riding and the weather was beautiful and cool.   

July 22nd Day 23

Ellington, MO to Houston, MO

Well after a seriously lacking night of sleep for me, Brent could sleep through World War III, I was not really looking forward to what is supposed to be the most difficult section of riding in Missouri through the Ozarks.  We had read people's accounts of the ride between "Ellington and Houston" and they struck fear into our hearts.  Turns out it was all a big facade.  There were definitely some hills and some challenging climbs but nothing like what we faced in North Carolina and Tennessee.  We lucked out big time on the weather while riding through Missouri, we had temps only reaching 88 or so with about 50-60% humidity.  Apparently the humidity and heat in the Ozarks is vicious and the most difficult thing about the ride.  Riding through the mountains was great, the scenery was great, the breeze felt good and it was nice to see some charming mountain towns, like Eminence, especially after our bleak impression of Ellington.  

We stopped for lunch in Eminence at Whitleys which had an old soda fountain feel to it.  Also, something that is really big in the Ozarks is people drinking and tubing down rivers.  We saw countless people going into convenience stores to stock up on beer for their trips down the rivers.

We found a great spot in the Jacks Fork River to take a swim, the water felt great but after such a relaxing break like that it's tough to get on the bike and finish out 35 miles.  There was a fire tower at the top of the Ozarks, so of course we had to climb it.  The view was great, you can see it in the video.  We ran into Tim a little bit down the road, he was biking West to East alone.  Tim lives in Monterey California and has his own accounting business, he has flown back twice on his journey for business, he was a really nice guy and tough too, he was biking in wool hiking socks and sandals!

We hauled it in to Houston to the Houston Motel, which had been changed to the Horse Creek Inn.  We had heard all sorts of great things about this Inn from several different people coming the opposite direction, so we were excited to get there.  We had heard about the "Swimming Hole" we went there with the owner of the motel.  He was a really cool guy, he is full blood native american from Bryson City, North Carolina and is one of the biggest horse whisperers in the world.  It was pretty amazing to hear him talk about some of his experiences.  The truck he drove was an old diesel Ford that had been converted to run on Vegetable Oil.  He said the modifications only cost $3,000 dollars and that he goes to a couple of the local fast food type establishments and collects their used vegetable oil for his fuel.  He told us that diesel trucks were originally developed to run on Peanut Oil for farmers.  These type modifications aren't possible on newer model diesel trucks because apparently the auto/oil industry caught on.  He said that their is a diesel take in the truck that is only used to briefly heat the engine to a certain temperature and then the vegetable oil takes over as the source of fuel.  

The owner of the motel then took us to the swimming hole about 3 miles away and it had the best cliff jump imaginable.  The highest one we jumped off was probably 40 feet.  It was a great thing to end the day with, somehow, some way I have to get something like that in or near my backyard.  See the video here.  

That night the cool owners of the motel made a pasta dinner for us, Art and Ben, a father and son riding east from San Francisco.  The pasta hit the spot as did the $35 dollar room.  We had a great stay at the Horse Creek Inn and want to thank the owners for making the trip through Houston so enjoyable. 

Day 22 – July 21

A very unique day…

The actual ride from Farmington to Ellington was not too memorable. But our night spent in Ellington was one that Lee and I will remember for a long time.

After a full day of riding, we rolled into Ellington looking for the park to set up shop for the night. We found out where it was and took a mile and a half detour to the back of town and found our Brawley Park. We thought that being towards the back of the town and tucked away, we would not have much company, but we were not alone. There was a family celebrating a couple of their kids’ birthdays together. We had plopped ourselves down by some benches away from their party, which was at some picnic tables under a covering, which we decided we were going to sleep on after they left.

They very graciously offered us some of the food that they had cooked up, which included hamburgers on sliced bread, pork, and crunchy cooked potatoes. A few things that struck both of us right off the bat were the 1) quantity of kids that this family had 2) how dirty the kids were and 3) how little control they had over their kids. The kids greeted us with cake smeared all over their faces and arms, which is cute for a little while when they are eating, but most parents usually clean it up after they are done eating. Not them…they just let the kids be kids along with their dirty feet and diapers. I would say there were at least seven kids between two mothers of 20 and 23. During the two hours we spent with them, I don’t think either one of them ever really sat down because they were busy chasing the kids down and trying to wrangle them in the picnic area, especially TJ, who had one heck of a mullet going for only being a couple of years old. Pretty much from the minute we got there to the minute the family left there was non-stop chaos, yelling, and baby-wrangling.

This family also just found four puppies that were abandoned in some nearby bushes, dehydrated and underfed. So they ended up taking these dogs home with them in addition to the two dogs they already had.  

It is tough to describe the entire situation because it was just so bizarre and I am sure that the description doesn’t really sound that strange, but it was an experience that Lee and I had never encountered.

Once the family left, we set up our beds on the picnic tables and held our fingers crossed that not too many animals would visit during the night due to the large amounts of food that all the kids had thrown and left around the area. Once it got dark, we quickly realized that through this secluded park was a very busy throughway (gravel road) going to some park land behind us which had traffic throughout the night. This was according to Lee since I basically go into a coma at night. Lee tells me the next morning that he had a horrible night sleep due to all the locals driving by to check out the bikers, his fear of a re-enactment of ‘Deliverance’, and the critters visiting to scavenge the food.

July 19 – Day 20

Carbondale, IL

It was time for a rest day again and coordinated it to be in one of the biggest towns we’d been to since Lexington, which was Carbondale, IL. Carbondale is the home of the Salukis, which is the University of Southern Illinois. Of course we had to go to the local bike shop to pick up some more parts, which hopefully will come to an end now that I think we have every possible bike tool and spare part possible to build another complete bike. We visited Carbondale Cycles where the mechanic there worked his magic on Lee’s bike and had it purring like a cat. After the bike maintenance, Booby’s subs, and giant Dairy Queen Blizzards we were enjoying the day off and not biking in the scorching heat again. Thankfully we heard that the heat and humidity were supposed to break the following day so our rest day sounded like we had perfectly coordinated our schedules with Mother Nature.

We got a tour of the Southern Illinois campus, met Christian, who is a writer for their campus newspaper, the Daily Egyptian, and now she will be writing a story for their paper to be published July 24th. If anybody knows why the Southern Illinois area has Egyptian ties, please let us know. Christian did not know the exact roots of it, but the whole area is tied to Egypt somehow and now I am reallycurious.

Once we had some of the work done for the day, we went off and saw a movie for the first time of the trip, Transformers. After watching the movie, I am convinced that my bike is actually now a hiding robot and will come to life on one of these big hills and charge me up to the top. That could have just been the heat getting to me but I am going to hold my fingers crossed…

See the The Daily Egyptian Article here. 

-Brent