October 13, 2022
Day 22 - Cape Girardeau, MO (Holiday Inn Express) to Marquand, MO (Belmont Inn B&B)
"If U Steal Here We Will Shoot U"
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Statistics, Useful & Otherwise;
Elevation Gained Today; 3,492 ft Cumulative; 44,186 ft
Maximum Grade Today; 13%
Roadkill Seen Today; Possum (1), Armadillo (1), Bird(1), Snake (1), Squirrel (1), Unknown (1)
Cumulative; Hawk (3), Raccoon(5), Possum (17), Mouse (1), Squirrel (9), Armadillo (6), Bird (2), Coyote (1), Deer (4), Snake (2), skunk (3), rabbit (1), turtle (1), unknown (7)
Found Money Today; $0.01 Cumulative; $0.46
Lodging Cost Today; $122.85 Cumulative; $1,608.32
Bad Drivers Today; 0 Cumulative; 11
Dog Chases Today; 2 Cumulative; 17
Confederate Flags Today; 1 Cumulative; 5 (plus 30 flags decorating Confederate soldiers graves on the Natchez Trace)
Average Speed Today; 8.4 mph Cumulative; 9.93 mph
Summary of Today's Ride; Ozark Hills and Winnie The Pooh Blustery Fall Headwind Made For A Tiring Day - But It Was A Great Ride!
I was up at 05:30 this morn and enjoying the hot breakfast of the Holiday Inn Express at 06:10. I took my time and sipped coffee; it was 40 degrees outside and I was in no hurry to get started. Still, Harvey and I rolled away before 07:00. I spotted a penny on the pavement while we were waiting for a stoplight change, so the "Found Money" fund is up to a whopping 46 cents now - it's not looking good.
Before we even got out of the city proper I found myself using the granny gear, and that set the tone for the day as there was a lot of very slow crawling up steep hills. Cape Girardeau has changed a lot since I was here in 1976 - I guess every place has changed a lot since 1976 - but I found myself saying "I could live here" as I rolled away. The historic river front area is similar to what it was, but the newer development by the interstate is quite cosmopolitan with all the modern stores we need for our lifestyle these days (Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, and the usual mall stores). And as you roll out into the countryside you encounter rural properties that would make nice home-sites close to town. Many towns I pass through I think "glad I don't live here," and only a few get my "I could live here" seal of approval.
There was no wind in the early morning, and that's a good thing cause it was frosty cool on my fingers. The wind picked up mid-morning and became rather fierce by noon; and of course it was mostly a headwind against me. By noon I had slowed to a crawl; the steep hills took their toll as I labored up them at 3.5 - 4 mph, and whenever I reached a bit of flat road on top the wind slowed my progress. It really wasn't that big of a problem, I just accepted that I would be traveling slow today; why do I care if I average 8 mph instead of 10 mph? I'll get there eventually, and at least it isn't raining on me today.
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Missouri road names are pretty simple. You have State Road A (SR A) or SR 0 or SR AA or SR 00. The county roads seem to use longer numeric sequences, so as an example you might have CR 314. So the ACA map might tell me to follow SR K until it intersects with SR Z. Intermingled with this you have some "normal" street names as well. I'm just saying that it gets interesting, that's all. Don't confuse SR 0 with SR 00.
There were several "interesting" signs along today's route. I only photographed a few. Sometimes I don't photograph a sign of interest because folks are out and about and might be unhappy that I'm photographing something in their yard.
There's a lot to be noted in the following photo. For one thing, you can see the strength of the wind that slowed my progress today. But aside from that, it's just weird; these 2 flags were mortal enemies in the deadliest war our country has ever fought. An estimate of 750,000 dead from the war is not unreasonable; Civil War Deaths. If you supported one of these flags, you would not have supported the other. Yet folks fly them both together, or in the same yard on separate flagpoles. I suspect these folks just don't have a clue - that's about the nicest conclusion one can reach.
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1 year ago
1 year ago
To keep from being conspicuous and stopping directly in front of the house to take the above photograph, I rolled past it a bit and then shot back at it. A guy on a bicycle really can't afford to illicit the ire of landowners in the same area where the "we will shoot U" sign was photographed.
Today's ride was just an introduction to some much harder rides ahead of me. But the constant up and down was pretty tiring, especially with the headwind.
Today's roads were all pretty good. I had an adequate shoulder on the few miles of busier road I traveled, and most of today's route consisted of low-traffic routes. There were a few logging trucks out and about and I kept a watchful eye on the rear view mirror, but I would still rate today as a very good ride.
When I rolled into Marquand I came upon the Belmont Inn sooner than I had expected. Fortunately, the owner had told me to look for the Baptist Church and the Inn was directly across the street.
The Belmont Inn is listed on the ACA map but the phone number is inoperative. I needed to stay somewhere in the Marquand area, so I checked for AirBnB listings and found that the Belmont Inn had converted to become an AirBnB. The entry code worked fine and all was well, except that there was no wifi as advertised. I called the owner and she explained that she had forgotten to tell me that - it's really no problem for me, but she does need to change the AirBnB listing. I am updating this journal with my netbook tethered to my phone, and that works fine.
Today was Day 7 of the 8-day run I'm on at the moment, and today was expected to be the hardest day. It was, but it really wasn't that overwhelming - it would have been quite pleasant even considering the hills if it wasn't for the wind. The cycling gods continue to laugh at me. Tomorrow should be a relatively easy day compared to today, and then I'm taking the third and final rest day of this journey before facing the hardest days in the Ozarks. So far so good.
If you plot my route today and the next several days you will see that I'm sort of circling clockwise around the St. Louis metroplex - so there is some logic to this route I'm taking. You can always use the mouse wheel and scroll out on the map to have a bigger look-see around, the map is fully interactive.
I just left from Illinois yesterday - so I guess I just got back from Illinois.
All the really good music was invented in the 1970's or thereabouts. Sorry, but there just isn't much anything else left to discover, music-wise. But I could be wrong you know, I often am on matters dealing with music and other such "soft science" topics. All right then, I hope you have some good 1970's era music in your life - we all need a little bit of 70's music now and then. Good night folks...
Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km)
Total: 1,070 miles (1,722 km)
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1 year ago
1 year ago