Thursday, July 25, 2013

Making it to Springfield

July 19, 2013
Lake Ozark, MO to Springfield, MO

Today started off badly, got worse, and then was amazing. Since the address of the church had changed since the year before, we started the day with a wrong turn. It quickly added 3 miles to our trip before we even really started. Not long after we corrected ourselves, we ended up on the freeway, complete with semi-trucks, cars going way too fast, and many exit ramps. Needlesstosay I was a little freaked out. Another rider and I, Kamal, eventually decided that we had had enough and called the van to pick us up. She had been freaking out on the road too so we decided that just skipping to the next road would be a good idea. And it was an amazing idea! The rest of the ride turned out to be awesome and we had fun biking with just each other and getting to know one another better. We were on county roads or farm roafs for most of the trip which had amazing views and fame animals! Missouri continued to be one of the most beautiful states we've been in. 



We were headed to Springfield, but passed right through the home town of one of our riders, Matt. His family was making us burgers from cattle that they had raised for lunch so we were all anxious to get there. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Kamal and I couldn't keep up with Matt and Jeff, ran out of water, and thought we might have gotten lost since the farm roads were poorly marked, so we stopped at this really cool looking historic house. While standing in the shade at the start of the driveway, a mini van pulled up and asked if we needed water because this was his house. We were so excited for water and followed him and his son into the house. He was very excited to see us and hear about what we were doing and gave us a whole tour of the house and history. It was unbelievable. I didn't take pictures inside, but you can check out the W. C. Potter house here.


The dad's name was Jim and so was his son. Little Jim filled our camelbacks with ice and water while big Jim took us around the house. He even brought us down to the basement where you could see the original brick that the house was built out of. When we came up from the basement, little Jim told us that another rider had showed up on the front step. Since we had left our bikes outside, Ella V had seen them and pulled in. As we were all standing on the front stoop, Sam rode by and we flagged her over for some water refill too. Afterwards Jim got a picture of us all on the front steps with little Jim. It was awesome and I'm so happy we just happened to stop there. 


Afterward it was just a little while to lunch which was absolutely delicious. This was when my phone died so I have no other pictures from today, but the ride into Springfield was also amazing. The clouds had just come out because it was going to rain that night so everything had cooled down dramatically. A very welcome break from the humid heat of Missouri.

No comments:

Post a Comment