Eminence Front

No update yesterday as we lacked connections because we were camping in a park. I’ll try to catch you up quickly. 

So we started out our trip Thursday morning from Ash Grove, the best, most hospitable place we’ve been to date. We started off the day with doughnuts from the Maple Lane bakery, where we got ice cream yesterday. They’re quite versatile at Maple Lane and good at everything they serve. Good hot coffee too, a key to early mornings. We are trying to get going as quickly as possible since it’s been so hot. If we can get 40-50 miles in befor me lunch it makes the rest of the day easier. 

Jerry and Dave, who’s riding East to west

Today we had plans for lunch, since Barb from Livonia, our new friend from Ash Grove, said lunch at her daughter Carli’s place in Marshfield MO was on her. We had a pretty uneventful morning, outside of saying that we finally had the wind in our favor and it really really helps. If you haven’t tried it you should. It really beats the other way. 

So we made it into Marshfield by about 12:30, and found The Little Clay House after a little exploration. It was literally a little house on Clay street and she had decorated it with all sorts of personal and some very interesting stuff. I personally liked a mobile made of school scissors. It eminds me of Tess who was going to make Mrs. Utrata a mobile made of all the pencil stubs she sharpened in her 3rd grade class. In any case lunch at The Little Clay House was terrific. I had a TBA, a turkey bacon avocado sandwich with broccoli salad. Good food like we’ve lacked at most of the convenience stores we’ve been scoring lunches at lately. If you’re ever going through Marshfield you must try it. You won’t be disappointed. 

The Little Clay Hoise

Scissor mobile

Carli, Barb’s daughter, in her Little Clay House

So we had to be on our way on this hot day, and our target today was Hartville MO. There is very little there, but it is located right where we need to stay to keep us moving and there’s few options before or after. Fortunately Jerry is a member of an organization called Warm Showers. This group will host cyclists as they travel through an area. In order to join you must also agree to host others. It’s a nice deal and Pat’s friend Mike in Lander Wyoming does this. So Jerry looked up Hartville and sure enough there is a couple who host cyclists right in town. What luck. Jerry looked up the listings and they had good reviews. Jerry called and made arrangements. 

As we were riding toward Hartville, about 10 miles away we were stopped by our hosts who said they were on their way to Springfield to pick Up their son. They gave us their daughter’s phone number and said they would be in later and she would show us around. We rode the last 10 miles including a huge hill up to their house. I was a bit taken back when we saw the house. It was an absolute mess. Jerry had to work on his bike but the daughter showed me where we would find a shower in the house. I felt so bad, but this place was bordering on a hoarder house.  It was so spectacularly unsanitary I couldn’t for a moment imagine staying here. I thanked the daughter and said I’d be helping my brother with the bike. We did actually fix Jerry’s gear cable but also had a conversation about staying. I felt so bad for our hosts but I also honestly feared for our safety more and we figured that after an hour of working on the bike and our hosts still missing it would be best for us to skedaddle quickly. I couldn’t find the daughter but I called her and told her we would be going into town to fix the bike and away we rolled. I felt horrible about doing this, and I felt very rude, but I’ve never been in a house that made my skin crawl like this and I was selfish and we left. This family obviously needs some help and I couldn’t stop thinking about their situation all night but I still left. I called city hall about staying at the local park and they were okay with that so off we went. We had a gas station dinner and went down the street to the park and settled in. Hartville city park was nice, had a bathroom but no sink or water but we made it work. We set up the tent under their pavilion and had a good night’s sleep, which wasn’t going to happen at our other option. 

So Friday morning and we set out for our next target, Eminence MO. Eminence is on a river where people float along a  river on whatever floats. Abby calls it ca-brewing, but that’s about it. There are a number of access points along the river and Eminence is the main spot. The river is spring fed so it’s really clean, really cold and really popular. We couldn’t get a hotel room anywhere in town, so we called a campground who said they would fit us in. Good news. 

The day riding was really good; again, the wind wasn’t against us and this helped a lot. We stopped a couple of times in towns along the way and picked up sandwiches and a Mcbreakfast in Houston MO. There were lots and lots of hills and we went up and down all day long, but we were able to get the 80 miles we needed without too much trouble. 

We got into Alley Spring, another entry point onto the river and it looked so inviting that we took a break to check it out. The river, the Jacks Fork River, was too inviting and we had to jump in. The water was so cold and so refreshing it was hrs to tiger baxk we n the bikes, but we needed to. Back on we went and did the last 4-5 miles up and down the steepest hills of the day, on a 97 degree day. 

We checked in at the campground and it turned out to be the most chaotic place I’ve ever camped. They sent us to “tent city” and just said “okay, set up your tent somewhere.” There are RV’s, tents, cars and trucks all over this field and it sits right next to the river so there are people everywhere. There are no spots so after we set up our tent and went away we came back and there are tents on top of tents. Minutes ago while writing this a couple with a dog came up and plopped down their tent a few feet from ours. Without saying a word. I think this is standard here so it’s not like it’s rude, I guess. We are happy to have the site, and thankful for the great water access (we’ve gone swimming twice to cool off) but I seriously doubt we will be getting much sleep tonight.
 River landing at Arrowhead Campground, our home for the night
Facts: 82 miles, 5,200 feet climbed!