Joy by Ozarks

The morning came quickly. By 6 AM I was ready to roll over to the cafe I noticed the last night. To my surprise, this cafe was a gem in the rough. Beautifully decorated interior with above average coffee, good eats, and wifi. In such a small town of Missouri, finding this place was wonderful. It’s called Vintage market and cafe, and for those cyclists behind I highly recommend it for the food and wonderful owners. Christina Baker, owner of the joint, welcomed us bikers and provided endless supply of the coffee and food we ever so desired. Through the window, we could see dark, gray clouds rolling in right towards us. We decided to hunker down just in case the storm was heading our direction. Sure enough it started, and a complete downpour was right above us. We were incredibly lucky to have stuck around the cafe and continued our conversations with locals. After several cups of coffee, and salutations to our new friends, we finally departed for our destination. Although we knew we had plenty of hills today through the Ozarks, we felt energized and happy to have spent a couple hours in such a comfortable environment.

The roads greeted us with steady hills, almost as to help warm up our legs for what’s to come. Humidity had set in early, but not enough to write home about. I repeatedly reached into my handlebar bag for the delicious ginger snaps I purchased yesterday, and decided these will be added to the snack rotation. Along the way we took our time with the hills as to not overdue it early on, but honestly the forests we road along were so damn beautiful nothing matter at all. I can’t even begin to explain the smell and the sight we are able to experience. I could take pictures for days. And with little traffic, we considered this some of the better riding on the trip (seems to happen everyday). We eventually officially entered the Ozark Scenic Riverways, which occasionally brought us over streams of blue, clear water. Absolutely stunning. I’m always giddy over clear water, and Missouri offers that endlessly. The pleasures of a river are quickly over when you remember what’s next. The uphills. The ozarks offer some of the longest hills on the route, and plenty of them. Old Timer describes them as a rollar coaster because your either climbing up or flying down. I reached a maximum speed of 45 mph today, and a minimum riding speed of 3.7 mph. If proper shifting isn’t applied, this type of terrain can put a hurting on your legs.

After about 25 miles of this, we hit the town of Eminence. Another quaint town, but with plenty of food options. We opted for the Dairy Bar, cause one must never pass those up. I claimed a wooden bench while the dudes ordered some food. On the lunch menu for today: three English muffins, peanut butter, and mixed jellies. Keith kindly offered a nice portion of his burger and fries, which I graciously accepted. I chose to hold off a milkshake today because of the steep hills we would encounter. With full water bottles and stomachs, we were off. Right off the bat my legs felt like strawberry jello. Wobbly and shakey. Resupplying blood to my quads and hamstrings take about 5 minutes of pedaling, but take even quicker when climbing. We got smacked with a looooong climb less than a quarter mile in, and this now became a “put your head down and keep pedaling Bobby” moment. You’d be amazed with what the body can physically overcome when your mind is blinded by what’s ahead. Sweat-soaked shirt, fogged up sunglasses, and heavy breathing encompassed the better part of the later afternoon. Any time we stopped though, there was zero complaining. We love this part of Missouri, and it’s worth the effort for the views we encounter or the hills we speed down.

Later, Jim noticed a neat historic park on the route, and we decided to take a closer look. There existed a river of blue water, likely from limestone, flowing through a grass field and forest. A natural spring pumped 81 million gallons of water per day into a flowing stream. I’ve never seen anything like this. It was essentially the starting point of a massive creek. So worth the stop and extremely intriguing.

A massive climb up lead us to a wonderful plateau in what seemed like Missouri’s highlands. We were happy to have some smaller rolling hills to cruise into town on.

We pedaled into town with no plans as of yet where to sleep. After speaking with the local librarian, we settled for a pavilion we noticed coming into town. In order to not be noticed, we decided to head out to dinner and return later to stealth camp.

While there, I enjoyed a warm coffee and two scoops of ice cream. I had made a delicious meal earlier, so I was all about the dessert. I ended up spending a couple hours there journaling and on the phone with friends, and then returned back to our pavilion for slumber. Once again, we all laid on top of our picnic benches and laughed as we went to sleep. Luckily, the bull frog down by the small pond overpowered any other noise coming from snores tonight. I couldn’t be happier with these dudes, and with how the trip has been thus far.

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