We woke up to a continuation of yesterday's dreary weather of rain and cold temperatures. It was about 40 degrees and steadily drizzling. I had on a long sleeve polypro long sleeve undershirt, a jersey, winter gloves, and my Gore-tex rain jacket. Shorts, leg warmers, and booties on the lower half. I was pretty comfortable. Under arm vents in my jacket allowed me to cool off when chugging up hills.
We started out going up and down rollers. We were riding alongside I-44 on parts of what used to be the famous route 66. Signs marked this, calling it "historic route 66". I'm pretty sure this is the road people took to go out west earlier in the last century. I was riding alone for the most part, group riding in hills is not easy due to the constant changing of pace, different climbing abilities, descent rates, etc. The first stop was quick. The next stop was after a nice downhill in the town of Newberg, where the center of town activity seemed to revolve around the local pool hall. Some curious kids watched us and posed across the street while us bicyclists drank tasty hot chocolate.
We climbed out of Newberg, passing through the town of Doolittle. Some of the houses along the roads are pretty run down and strewn with garbage and miscellaneous (lawn) furniture. Lots of lazy dogs, then a white standard poodle decided to chase us. His underbelly and front were filthy dirt brown from his tireless chases of all the passing bicyclists. A poodle chasing me for some reason did not strike the same level of fear into me as a Doberman would. I then got another flat. Phil "Moody Blues" from Florida stopped to help.
Rode up to lunch after passing through the college town of Rolla. Lunch was tomato soup, macaroni and cheese, and hot dogs. Pecan pie for dessert. There was an authentic two-seater outhouse in the back from where lunch was set up.
More rollers into the end of this short day. Had some time to catch up on my laundry, have a nice breakfast of blueberry pancakes, three egg omelette, toast, and hash browns. Today's high temperature was only in the mid 40's. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 70's. We are really having some screwy weather. But tomorrow sounds like excellent riding weather. Tomorrow will be our shortest day at only 81 miles. We will reach our final destination of Charleston, SC in nine more days.
