Day 24: Farmington, MO to Eminence, MO

June 25, 2006

93.89 Miles, 7:16:37 Ride Time, 13.07 Average Speed, 42.9 Maximum Speed

I felt a little dissatisfied with my progress after the previous two short days, so I decided to try to make it to Eminence, which would be close to 100 miles.

After the continental breakfast, I rode out at 7:30. Traffic on this early Sunday morning was light, and I hoped it would stay that way as I got through the section of road that everyone had warned me about yesterday. I seemed to have a hard time getting started the first 20 or 30 minutes - my legs were tired, and I had trouble even going faster than 12 or 13 mph.

My route out of Farmington took me through St. Joe Park, which was nice and shady. As I approached a bicycle trailhead, a local cyclist there waved at me to stop. He was Don Hager, a nice guy in his late fifties, out this morning training for a triathlon. He offered to ride with me on the trail, which wasn't a shortcut (it actually added a few tenths of a mile to the route), but which was much more scenic and peaceful.

As we rode the 2.5 miles of the paved trail that wound its way through some woods, we talked about my trip, other TransAm cyclists he had met, and his upcoming triathlon. Of course, like all the other residents of Farmington I had encountered, he warned me about the bad road conditions, and even worse drivers that I would encounter soon.

He rode with me off the trail briefly, to make sure I got on the right road (very nice of him), and as he predicted, a couple of pickup trucks passed us on a blind hill. "A perfect example of stupidity", he said disgustingly. We said goodbye, and I continued on to Bismarck on State Route 32, which at least had a wide shoulder, the last I would see for a while.

I stopped in Bismarck briefly to get some snacks for the road. The place I stopped at was busy with people buying cases of beer and ice, presumably to take with them for a day of canoeing, which seemed to be the major pastime in the area. Great, I thought - I'm going to be sharing the roads with these guys all day...

After riding a section of county road N, which was surprisingly busy for a Sunday morning, I got onto the infamous "W". After all the warnings I had received about it, it was sort of a letdown - it was bad, but nowhere near as bad as the two hours I spent riding with coal trucks around Hazard, KY. That remains the worst bicycle experience I've ever had. The odd thing about this road (and some of the other county roads in Missouri), is the complete absence of any type of shoulder - knee-high weeds come right up against the asphalt, without even any gravel between the paved surface and the ditch.

I made a gatorade-and-snack stop at Graniteville, where several signs made it very clear that the restroom was reserved for paying customers ONLY. I asked to use the restroom, and the woman handed me what looked like a broomstick, with the bathroom door key welded to the end of it. Many stores of this type have their bathroom key attached to some unwieldy object (usually a heavy piece of metal), to prevent people from walking off with it, but this was by far the largest and most unwieldy example yet - it was actually comical.

Just before I reached Johnsons Shut-Ins State Park, a large black dog bounded out at me. I felt (or probably just imagined that I felt) his hot breath on my legs. This was the scariest dog incident of the trip, but I was able to really unload the pepper spray on him (and all over my rear panniers as well). It seemed to work, and the last I saw of him, he was rubbing his face in the grass. Ha!

Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park was one of the most popular parks in Missouri, until December 14, 2005, when a reservoir at a hydroelectric plant broke, and released 1.3 billion gallons of water through the park. The park is being repaired, and is now partially open. I looked around for a while, and, along with a few other tourists, listened to the the park lady describe the accident and its aftermath.

I rode on towards the next town, Centerville. There wasn't much there; some of the businesses that were still open had "for sale" signs on them. I stopped at a country store for gatorade and a sandwich. The sandwich wasn't very good, and I threw most of it away.

As I got ready to ride away, I saw a recumbent bike, and attached trailer, across the street at the "21 Diner". I went into the diner to meet the bike's rider, Tim from Michigan. He had started in Oregon, and was riding west. He warned me about how bad the Ozarks would be in the next few days, and I didn't have the heart to tell him how bad the Appalachians were - I can't imagine climbing those moutains on a recumbent. He had left that morning from Eminence, and was bound for Farmington (the opposite of my day's itinerary), and was on his way quickly; he seemed pretty tired.

I made a stop in Ellington, the last town until my destination of Eminence 27 miles away. The Ozarks finally showed up - it was pretty hilly, but not impossibly so. There was NOTHING for the 27 miles to Eminence, just hills and trees. It started looking (and sounding) stormy the last five miles, and I was sure I would get rained on, but it was only sprinkling as I rode into the little tourist town. I stopped in a liquor/convenience store, where an old lady let me use their phone to call a couple of motels (I didn't have any cell phone service at this point). As I left the store, the sun came out again.

I decided to check out a couple of motels down the street. The first had only one room left, which had no windows(!?), and cost $40. I checked it out, but it was just too claustrophobic, so I rode over the motel next door. It was OK, and cost only a few dollars more. It was very basic (no phone in the room) and tiny, but it seemed clean.

After I cleaned up, I rode around, checking out the town, which was the usual touristy sort of place - tiny grocery store, a handful of restaurants, even a couple of art galleries. Rather than do something more elaborate for dinner, I just got a hamburger, fries, and a milkshake at the Dairy Shack, and ate outside on a picnic table.

I went back to my tiny room, looked at my maps, watched television for maybe 30 minutes, then went to bed