Day 12: Ozarks

Trav Says:
We had the joy of driving through Cairo, IL today! I remember reading about Cairo about a year ago on reddit, and how it was a perfect example of an american town that has become a wasteland. Indeed it is an empty shell of what once was probably a decent town. As I was thinking these thoughts in my helmet, we got pulled over buy the coppers. Thankfully, he only gave us a warning. What a nice fellow.

Missouri, which I previously knew nothing about, has some really nice forests (called the ozarks) and nice winding country roads. Halfway into the countryside, the main route we wanted to take ended up being closed, and our detour was all over the place. For some reason Jimmy didn't know which roads were dirt and which were paved, so all the recommendations he was making ended up being dirt roads, which would be okay if they were short, but this would have been hours of dirt road driving. Anyways, we eventually made it out of the ozarks, and ended up in Springfield, MO for the night (where we saw a friendly preying mantis in the parking lot).

Kev Says:
We've seen a lot of roadkill along the way so far. You name it, racoons, porcupine, deer, cats, fox, birds, snakes, squirrels, frogs, rabbits, turtles, rats and groundhogs but today just after crossing the Mississippi river I saw a lifeless armadillo laying on the paved shoulder. In that moment that I realized for the first time that we really are far from home.

Shortly after that we were pulled over by the police for the first time so far. 41 in a 30 zone. Let us off with a warning. Score!

By some stroke of luck Willow has never fallen over in the three years I've owned her but it came close TWICE today. Once she slipped sideways in 3" of mud but I somehow was able to save her. (don't ask why we were in mud) The second time I was kick starting her in a gravel parking lot and lost balance. I caught her on a 45 degree angle and was holding the weight of her fully loaded with cases with one leg. I was not strong enough to right her but refused to let her drop so I just held on as long as I could and two helpful people ran to my rescue. Thank goodness Willow remains undropped for now.

Today we hit over 600km Which feels good even if 1/3 of it was not exactly in the direction we wanted to go. While trying to explore for less straight and more interesting roads we ran into some road work detours that left us circling in the Ozarks for a few hours. It would have been annoying if it weren't so fun. The roads were mostly good and the rolling hills and turns were a welcome change from the general flatness we found in Kentucky. Although driving into the sunset tonight was blinding it gave the sense that we were finally making headway in the right direction, if the bikes keep working and we keep this pace I might actually make it to Vancouver before I have to go back to work.

Willow and Fred did so well today they deserved a good comfortable sleep.