The next morning we learned that it had rained so much over the past 24 hours that the camp’s canoes had washed away because of the high water. 

I believed it. 

After taking some pictures of William and Mollie, William and I said our goodbyes. He needed to continue riding, while I was able to take a rest day. 

The following morning, I realized it had been exactly one month since I left Waco. As time does, it had passed very slowly, and very quickly.  

Mollie walked with me and my loaded bike all the way out to the highway. Sadly, like Darla in Colorado, I haven’t seen her since that time. She also appears to have vanished from the face of the earth.

I had my first flat in Monett (pop 6,148) but found that my tire held air after I pumped it up, at least for a while. It carried me for a couple of hours until I stopped for lunch. I found an old bridge over a small creek and walked my bike underneath it where it was a lot cooler. I spent the next hour there just enjoying myself and, eventually, repairing my flat tire. 

Today was an unrushed traveling day, and I eventually made my way through Springfield (pop 133,116) to a trailer park where I asked how much it costs. After I found out it would decrease my capital by $6.50, I decided to keep riding and pedaled another mile or so down the road. 

I found a nice location to stealth camp, but had to wait until there weren’t any cars before I could hide. That forced me to stand on the shoulder and lift my water bottle to my mouth every time a car passed as I pretended to be stopping for a drink of water. 

I thought about using William’s method, but I decided I didn’t have enough money for bail… it would work for the occasional car, but this area was just too populated.

After about six or seven minutes there was a break long enough to allow me to run my bike to the fence, throw my bags over, lift my bike over, climb over, then move it all out of sight.  

It was a decent enough spot, well away from the road, although with all the rain it was a bit soggy. I made a peanut butter and honey sandwich and drank a Mr. Pibb, then journaled for a while. 

When I fell asleep, it was like a cannonball being dropped into a lake… I was gone. I went out so fast that I forgot to record how many miles I had ridden, but just now I checked google maps and I’m pretty sure (?) it was somewhere between 50-60. I do know that I was pretty satisfied with myself thinking how I’d added $6.50 to my coffers just by pedaling down the road a little ways to that nice, secluded location.