Distance: 87 miles Marshfield, MO to Summerville, MO
Ride Time: 7:06
Maximum Speed: 50 mph
Altitude Gain: 6231 feet
Average Temperature: 100
Today was a very hot day. It had a lot of climbing, typical of Missouri.
Riding into Houston was very hot and I had only hot water to drink. I came to a church of Faith and Fellowship. Kathie was there parked under the entrance carport for some shade. As I rolled up, she explained how nice the pastor was and had told her she was welcome to park there. When I had my water bottles and food replenished and were getting ready to leave, Kathie said she wanted to thank the pastor for his kindness. He wanted to meet me also and came to the door and invited me into the church to cool off for a bit. He and his wife gave me cold water and ice that filled both our water cooler and my water bottles. We exchanged stories of other cyclists that had stayed at the church. Other years there had been many more cyclists that there are this year.
We were planning on staying in Summerville and had been told by several people that it was a big enough to have some campgrounds. Upon arrival, we found that there were in fact no campgrounds in town to stay in; however, they said the next town had lots of campgrounds. We were cautioned not to get stuck in one particular campground that had a reputation for it’s night life. It was already close to dark and I didn’t have time to ride there, so we packed up the bike and drove into Eminence, MO. There were crowds of people filling the streets and cars were jammed in along everywhere and no one was wearing a mask or social distancing. There was a live band on the steps of the courthouse and it was definitely a party atmosphere. We finally found a vacant spot in one campground and later found that it was the “party campground.” Kathie commented that we had landed back in Woodstock. There were tents all over the place that night, but things were calm for the time we were there.
Today I saw a live vulture and a racoon fishing in a stream. I saw a road kill possum and 3 more dead armadillos.
ThruUSA2 