Today was like entering into a new world. We were warmly greeted by the no longer rolling hills of Missouri. They have become roller coaster hills. Although they sure present quite the challenge for a loaded tourer, they are also quite the fun touring experience. After about 10 or so of the quick up and downs we started to learn more of the technique we need to conquer these hills. I'll take you through what goes through my mind.
At the top. Shift into a very low gear, stand and pedal as fast as I can until I reach 25 mph, then tuck to cut through the wind, then as soon as I hit the bottom of the hill and start going up stay in the low gear and pedal as fast as I can again, don't down shift yet, keep pumping with powerful pushes so that I can keep my momentum as long as possible, look up and notice the beau fitful trees, finally down shift some just to keep my cadence up, by this poky hopefully I've made it to the peak but chances are good that I'm only half way, so I stand and push as hard as I can until I can't go anymore, then I sit and down shift to slowly crawl up the last bit, coast for a few seconds on top to catch my breath, repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Until Kentucky.
This type of riding actually seems to suit my style Better though which is weird. I like to pedal hard then coast a little them pedal hard again. So I felt pretty good by day end. 80 miles in terrain like this though is still quite the challenge. And even though the roads have very little shoulders here the drivers have been very courteous towards us. Thanks Missouri drivers :)
We got lunch today at coppers burgers, or something like that. I ordered some pulled pork nachos and they were quite spectacular. It was a fun lunch period where I exchanged texts with quite a few college friends. Yay cornerstone.
When we were coming through fair grove, 20 miles from the end, a lady hopped out of her car and flagged us down. Her name was Helen. She was the lady who always helped out cyclists who came through their small town. She was a Christian and we talked for about 10 minutes. I almost wish we would have stayed at the city park in their town to share more time with her but God had other plans.
We made it to marshfield just in time to get ready for our Skype session with the 3rd and 4th graders at Walloon church. There were so many kids and they had so many questions for us. They have been praying for us and following us as missionaries. What a humbling experience. God really blessed my spirit with their eagerness to know about our vision. Whatever we can don't raise up the next generation if warriors for Christ I am all about it. I just can't believe god would use a couple of crazy bikers to have a big part in these kids lives. We hope and plan to go visit with them on a Wednesday night when we get back.
While we were at mcdonalds skyping a couple of highschool girls came over and since they had heard out Skype conversation they told us about fields of faith. A youth convention combining all 14 local area churches for a big youth rally. So we went. Haha. It was amazing to be in a place with over 600 believers. I had been really missing an experience like that recently. We also got rinsing worship songs :) and we were blessed with a huge free dinner. How great and fun is our god?
The event
We were just about ready to leave the event and I realized I had lost my bright yellow jacket. We then backtracked and found the football coach at the highschool hanging on to it, knowing it belonged to me, and was planning to bring it to the faith event to find me! We had earlier asked directions then apparently I dropped my jacket. How cool. I thought it was a goner. Thank you lord.
We then found the county fairgrounds and set up camp around 9 pm. Not a bad night at all. Actually it will go down as quite a memorable one for me.
I feel ready to tackle some more crazy hills tomorrow.
God bless.
Thank you thank you thank you for your prayers.
Tailwinds, can they blow us up these hills?
Mark
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