Day 15 - Poplar Bluff to Van Buren, MO

Day 15 of our tour
October 18, 2016
43 miles today
3631 feet of climbing
(662.8 miles, cumulative)
(19783 feet of climbing, cumulative)


Part of what we like out here is that every day is a little different. Today was no exception.

We woke early, had coffee in our room even before the breakfast down the hall was ready, and ended up making one of our earliest starts shortly after 8:00 a.m.   It was slated to be another hot day, but it never reached yesterday's temperatures. It was humid, though, and we were thankful for the cloud cover that kept us out of direct sun for most of the day. The wind was not a factor today.

Our day destinations are chosen, in part, by the distances needed to get to a town with accommodations. Today we had the choice between 43 miles and 64 miles. Something around 50 would be optimal, but that would have left us at the side of the road near only a forest. We chose the shorter destination.

One difference today was that we rode almost the entire time on the wide shoulder of a major highway. It was actually very nice for several reasons.  Trucks almost always changed to the fast lane to give us a wide berth, even though we hugged the right side of the ten to twelve foot shoulder.  But there were often times when many minutes passed with no cars or trucks, and we had the entire road to ourselves. It felt very peaceful.

Today's major highway also had long gentle climbs and descents, and very good pavement, both of which contributed to enjoyable pedaling. In addition, we saw changes in the fall colors even from yesterday, and that was fun.

Here is a photo of a small river taken from the bridge over it:

I took a photo of the bike on the bridge and it shows the highway (US 60) that we were on all day:

We have seen lots of displays in yards of things related to Halloween. This colored hay bale was rather unique:

Today we had our third rear flat tire since we started. I had moved to go around a dresser drawer lying broken on the shoulder, and I think I ran the rear tire over a stone, or maybe over the rumble strip at a bad angle, causing another pinch flat. Replacing the tube went fine:

Hey, Ross and Madeleine, we had a bug come to watch us fix the flat tire. Here is his photo, for you:

More fall color alongside the highway:

We have come across many "Dollar General" stores in Missouri. Often they are off by themselves, such as this one next to the highway. They have restrooms. They are nice for taking a break:

Another pastoral scene:

And some color in the trees:

You may wonder what we do all day while in the saddle. What do we look at, besides trees? What do we think about?  Well, given that we are both intrigued by physics and math, especially Jean who taught those subjects for years, we found it fascinating to look at the rumble strips. We even had to get off the bike to examine them more closely:

Jean saw a graph! The small pebbles distributed in the channels of the huge three foot by five foot rumble strip panels made her think of a lesson example on graphing. Here is a fairly normal distribution:

Here is a bell curve wannabe distribution. We wondered, too, how the pebbles got there.  Washed in during rain storms? Blown in by the air currents create by passing trucks? Were the rumble strips intentionally made this way to trap the pebbles and keep the shoulder clean? So much to think about after passing thousands of these today. (And every distribution was slightly different.)

Enough physics and math.... Back to pastoral scenes:

And then, time for gift giving. We saw this car far ahead of us with flashers on, and as we approached they flagged us down. "Can you change our tire? We have AAA, but cannot get a cell signal." I agreed to have a look. Meanwhile the driver got through to AAA.  "Well, I think this gentleman might be able to do it.... he has the tire off... he's lowering the other tire...." I never heard the end of her conversation, but I finished the job more quickly than I had done our own tire thirty minutes earlier:

As we entered the outskirts of Van Buren we spotted this humorous attempt to encourage drivers to stop at a local eatery (with assumptions about who's driving rooted well in the past):

Finally, something from the recipe file on this trip. On hot days when we've arrived at motels we've felt like a cool one. Several times it has been a Pepsi or Coke from a vending machine. But other times it has been a sugary iced coffee/cream combo. (I'm not sure what the baristas call this.) My recipe: four tablespoons of half-and-half, four packets of sugar, lots of ice, strong coffee (note that two sacks of motel coffee were used for one pot), mixed together in an appropriate cup. Makes one serving. Contains three of the four major food groups: fat, sugar and caffeine. (Too early in the day for the fourth group.) I've displayed the ingredients on the windowsill under Jean's drying jersey:

More of US 60 awaits us tomorrow.