Distance: 81 miles Golden City, MO to Marshfield, MO
Ride Time: 7:18
Average Speed: 11.0
Altitude Gain: 5429 feet
Average Temperature: 95
Today it was clear we have left Kansas and were now in Missouri. We went from flat lands to hills and they were hard. I texted home that it was like doing intervals all day long on Trenton Hill. It was everything I could do to pedal up these hills and they ranged up to about 2 miles long. The down hill was not nearly long enough for me to aerobically recover before the next climb began.
I was riding along a small road that suddenly intersected with a four-lane divided highway. The GPS I was using showed that I was to continue riding the road directly across the divided highway. There were cones blocking the direct crossing of the highway; however, with a bicycle I could ride straight across and after waiting for the traffic to clear, I crossed it. When Kathie came to this same intersection, her GPS didn’t recognize the blockage on the highway and she stopped while looking for a way through. With no other alternative, she turned right onto the highway. Then she noticed a sign for making U-turns in the median. She needed to cross over two lanes of busy, fast-moving vehicles. She made a quick check and merged left two lanes to do the U-turn. As she did so, an 18-wheel semi and another car swerved to miss hitting her and the trailer. It was much too close of an encounter. We feel we were very blessed to avoid getting hit by the semi. Another example of the Lord’s miracles in our behalf. She completed crossing the other two lanes and exiting onto the road I was on.
On a lighter note armadillos must like Missouri. I saw 4 armadillo road kills today. These are the first armadillos I have seen outside of a zoo. As road kill they don’t move too fast.
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