Jeff’s Missouri Bicycle Trip Report - 05/18/09
Day 1 - Afternoon

I finished eating and left the Dairy Freeze at 12:55 p.m., heading west through town to get back on track. At 1:30 p.m. I stopped for a break at the Malone Town Hall side yard (at Shay and Hamann), where there was a stored culvert pipe in the shade to sit on.

As I was leaving, I noticed cactus plants here and there in the sandy soil, and hoped my tires avoided the stickers.

Mid-afternoon I heard a plane behind me. It was a crop duster. I was glad it was behind me and the wind was blowing to the north.

Nearing 4:00 p.m., and seeing Mason City in the distance, I decided to make my 2^nd detour of the day, to get some ice cream at The Dari Belle.

Heading out of Mason City got me on Route 10 west - actually northwest, so I turned around, riding south along Route 29 for a short way.

As I approached Salt Creek, I was glad to see that 1) the bridge wasn’t closed due to all the rain we’ve had and 2) there was no bluff to climb on the other side!

There was such a nice shoulder on Route 123 that I decided to stay with it into Petersburg. That gave me a nice hill to ride down (at 29.9 mph), and put me into town at 7:30 p.m. I turned south on Route 97 for the last few miles to my destination: Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site.

Here’s the last daylight picture I took for this day - along State Park Road.

I arrived at the campground at 7:50 p.m. - 21 minutes before sunset. I checked in with the camp host and hostess, who showed me on the map the $10 sites (without electricity). I chose campsite #74 from the map. After getting to the site, I realized there was no picnic table for locking the bike to. So I went back and changed to site #75.

I set up the tent pretty much in the dark. I could hear on a PA system that there was some sort of play/performance going on at the Kelso-Hollow or Village area. Then I noticed a motorcycle coming up the “Foot Path”, and thought, “He shouldn’t be doing that.” I went and took a shower, which felt really good. Later, when I was getting settled in the tent, loads of cars came up the “Foot Path”. I guess it’s a road now! All their headlights hit the side of the tent, but I was too tired to really care. The park was virtually empty; I should have taken more time for campsite selection.

Every evening I sent out (or attempted to send out) an email (usually with a picture attached) to Tahdra and the “support team” using George’s Blackberry. Below is the one sent for this evening. Stats in these emails are unofficial. Close inspection of GPS data when I got back provided more accurate numbers (at bottom).

Subject: Day One
Date: Monday, 5-18-2009 10:09 P.M.
Left at 9:06
Arrived just before 8:00 p.m.
Spent $5.25 + $1.54 + $10.00
67.3 mi
8:37 moving
29.9 max speed
7.7 mpg average - wind!
Had shower
Ready for long tomorrow
Good night
Jeff

The day’s statistics: 67 miles in 11 hours, 9 minutes, from start to finish = 6.0 mph average progress (includes non-moving time).
Spent: $5.25 (lunch) + $1.54 (ice cream cone) + 10.00 (camping fee) = $16.79.