Day 28 - May 31 - Marshall, MO to Lexington, MO - Two Old Guys Take On A Continent

May 31, 2023

Day 28 - May 31 - Marshall, MO to Lexington, MO

On The Road Again

John’s Story

Miraculously this morning the tube I patched last night in the tire on the new wheel was still holding air. My first successful patch job in over 1300 miles. Before this my other flat tires I just threw the tubes away after unsuccessfully patching them.

Back over 20 years ago I was out on a long ride from home and pulled under some shade to take a break. I noticed to my horror that on the back wheel the rims were breaking away from the part of the wheel with the spokes. There were a number of fractures up to 2” long. I called for the cavalry to rescue me, and my older daughter came with the van to haul me home. So wheel failure is not a new thing for me, tohugh even twice in over 20 years is too often.

I will definitely be paying more attention to my wheels going forward. I will check them at the end of each day for any signs of failure.

After a fabulous (?) Continental breakfast at the Comfort Inn we hit the road about 7:00 AM.

Yesterday’s themes continued today with a continuous succession of long, low-grade hills. No rideable shoulder but all the drivers very conscientious and courteous. With the south south east wind we actually experienced a little help for a change.

After all the miles we’ve ridden I have come up with a correlation. The bigger the road the fewer and the longer the hills and the lower their grades. The roadbuilders conformed the contours of the land to the road. The smaller the road the more and shorter the hills and the higher their grades. The roads were conformed to the contours of the land. Nowhere is this more true than in Missouri. You need to think twice before you take a shortcut from one highway to the next because you’re bound to be going up and down more difficult hills to climb. And in Missouri the term relatively flat has a whole new meaning. It’s like saying Saddam Hussein was relatively a good guy.

In Missouri when you’re riding a bike you’re in one of four states. You are either riding up a hill, riding down a hill, at the bottom of the hill about to ride up or at the top of the hill about to ride down. There are no known flat spots.

The little house on the prairie. I’m sure you can pick it up for a song. Just call a local realtor.

Ed is in in-depth consultation with the highest echelons of management at the Missouri state parks department. Because we spent the night in Marshall last night instead of going on to Higginsville due to my mechanical failure, we have to change our reservation at Watkins Mill State Park from tonight to tomorrow. Apparently it takes an act of the legislature for this to happen. Ed will provide details.

There was so much road noise from the traffic that Ed walked 30 yards over to the fence line to get away from it. I’m sure everyone who passed was thinking, you know, everyone seems to take their phone with them to the toilet. I told Ed afterwards he should’ve faced the highway so everyone could see he was not doing his business over by the fence. 😂

There was supposed to be a small chance of rain this afternoon. From the time we set out from the hotel this morning we could see rain showers around us. One finally caught up with us just about the time we stopped at a Sinclair station near Alma to take a break. We lucked out today. A friend in Topeka, Kansas, posted that he already had 3.9” of rain and it was still coming down. Luckily the rain shield dissolved as it moved toward us.

I’m being followed by a Moonshadow, or is that a rain shower?

As we passed the turn to Alma, which we did not take, a car making the turn stopped, stuck his head out the window and said, “Looking good guys. I’m a biker too”. Before I could engage in conversation he drove off toward Alma. A few minutes later he passed us and pulled over wanting to talk with us. Ed said we’re going to the Sinclair station, and he followed us there. We chatted with him for a while, and he offered to buy us coffee.

Ken bought us coffee (in my case, hot chocolate, because there was no decaf (grrr….)), and we chatted for a while. He’s married to Barbie!

Ken walked us over to a table in the Sinclair convenience store where a group of his cronies was solving the world’s problems. We helped, and soon the world seemed like it might just be worth keeping.

These guys reminded me of the group of Phillips Petroleum retirees in Bartlesville, Oklahoma who meet for lunch every Monday to do the same thing. These guys would fit right in with the BORFS (Bartlesville Old Retired Folks).

I captured a couple of good pictures for Johnny today. Michael, you’re gonna have to explain this one to Johnny.

I know Johnny will enjoy this one, but that’s not why I took it. A number of miles back we started seeing Road Closed signs. Not being the sort to give up (what with the universe being on our side and all), we pressed ahead. I approached the burly workmen and asked if we could walk through the construction site. After some consultation among themselves they told us to go ahead and give it a try, but don’t be surprised if the MODOT guy in the pickup truck on the other side of the missing bridge yelled at us when we got there. This picture is taken from the far side of the bridge after we had already crossed. It was a precarious undertaking. When we passed the MODOT truck I could see the Missouri state department of transportation rep in the cab of his truck watching us. He never said a word, but shortly after we passed he left the worksite and passed us as he left. I hope he wasn’t going to tattle on the cooperative construction crew who let us through. For their willingness to let us through we hereby grant the unknown crew the Auxiliary Road Angel Award.

Our venue for the night is the Big River Ranch equestrian event center. We rode down 2 miles of rough gravel road to get here. And the road was a classic example of “mostly flat” in Missouri.

I’m not sure if this is a horse skull or the remains of an Imperial storm trooper who offended Darth Vader. Alas, I knew him well.

I found this on the grounds of the equestrian center. It was fixed in a concrete post in 1949 as part of a survey of this part of the country

When we arrived here we were told it would be $20 per tent for camping. Melissa, the caretaker, will allow us to sleep inside the building if we want to because of the threat of rain tonight. I may still set up outside under cover of an awning just for the sake of air circulation. Melissa asked if she could take our picture to put on their Facebook page. Of course! Sometime later she came back and returned $20 of the $40 I had paid her for the night because she’s going to get some publicity out of our picture.

There’s about a 35% chance of rain tonight, and Melissa is letting us set up inside the front doors of the event center. A low chance of rain doesn’t mean the rain will necessarily be light.

This storm is south of us and headed generally in our direction. If it gets here it will definitely be a heavy storm, 35% chance or not.

Tomorrow we’ll cross the Missouri River again and spend some time riding in the floodplain before we get back into the hills. At least it won’t be the Katy Trail!

Ed’s Story

The queen size bed at the Comfort Inn was too comfortable. I didn’t want to get up this morning. When I did get up, John was already up and dressed.

Had the continental breakfast at the Comfort Inn. Two bananas, a biscuit with jelly, and then found a packet of instant oatmeal to eat, as they didn’t have the real stuff. It wasn’t bad in a pinch.

Loaded up the bikes and headed out shortly after 7 o’clock. The road was fairly decent and we started hitting the long shallow Missouri hills again.

We talked yesterday about having to stop early in Marshall. We should have made it to Higginsville yesterday; that would have put us at Watkins Mills State Park for tonight where we had a reservation. If we rode to the state park from Marshall, it would have been a 95 mile ride (way too far.)

We opted to stop at the Big River Ranch just outside Lexington, Missouri for the night which would put us at Watkins Mills tomorrow night. That, however, meant we had to change our reservation on the same day we were needing it. Say it’s not true.

I called the Missouri state park reservation department and explained the situation to the woman who answered the phone. She told me she could not make a same-day reservation change and would have to contact her supervisor. Such an empowerment for the workers.

After talking to the supervisor and explaining the situation again, she changed our reservation to tomorrow night. This was after reading a page long of rules and regulations concerning the park. We are in a different campsite; however, it is in close proximity to the original one which is still right next to the shower house. Very important.

Additionally, since the change is due to mechanical difficulties, even to a bike, we were not charged a change fee. That was a positive.

We continued down the road stopping at a Sinclair station just outside Alma. I know John has already talked about this. I wanted to take a picture with the dinosaur but acquiesced when John stated that his granddaughter Haley was looking for some type of dinosaur picture.

We had a little bit of rain at the gas station however, it was not even enough to wash the dust off our bikes, or panniers.

Next stop was Higginsville, which should’ve been our overnight last night. I’m sure John has already talked about the construction we went around. We had to take the panniers off of my bike to get it through the detour, and even that it was difficult at best.

That’s the problem: the person who does a journal entry first gets to tell all the good stories.

The Higginsville snack stop consisted of an orange juice, banana, and some trail mix. I convinced John to go off route and take a different road up toward Lexington. It would save about 6 miles of riding. The traffic was a little bit busier than some of the back roads we were on but there was a nice berm we could ride on. John said this is why we didn’t take this road because it’s busy.

When we turned off Highway 13 onto Higginsville Road leading to Lexington, we were surprised to find out it was a dirt road. The satellite view of Google maps did not depict it as a dirt road. The road became paved after about a mile of dirt and gravel. We followed this into Lexington and went to the Brother’s Market, where we purchased some dinner items and had lunch. Lunch was baked beans, pasta, salad, and JoJo potatos.

Leaving the market we headed to Casey’s to pick up a beer to bring to the campsite and headed out to the Big River Ranch. Again we had dirt and gravel roads.

Melissa, the manager, met us when we arrived, showed us the lay of the land, and collected our money. She let us pitch our tents inside the entranceway if we desired to stay out of the rain that may come tonight.

Camp sweet camp. There is John looking at his phone to see if my Cycleblaze entries have more likes than his.

As noted this is an equestrian event center. As you can tell looking at the field there are no equestrians present at the moment

I wonder if this is some of the original equipment used out here when this was a working farm.

Gnomes hard at word… unfortunately one didn’t survive the fall.

As John noted Melissa returned half the fees due to us, allowing her to put us on her Facebook page for publicity.

Dinner tonight will be one of my freeze dried meals and a banana. I forgot to buy any tomatoes or peppers at the market. I did pick up some tortillas to have peanut butter tortillas for breakfast in the morning.

Tomorrow’s ride is about 43 miles to the Watkins Mill State Park. The Jesse James family home is about 3 to 4 miles west of the state park.

Until we meet again, happy biking!

Today's ride: 48 miles (77 km)
Total: 2,676 miles (4,307 km)

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Rebecca ChimahuskyDad, I have no recollection of that road rescue but I’m glad you do! The good old days of a college student home for summer driving the Baby Blue Whale around… happy biking and glad you have auxiliary rescuers on this trip.
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