Chillicothe MO to Kirksville MO

5 hours 13 minutes to ride 75.1 miles.

First of all - what is Chillicothe famous for?

Started the day riding on State Route 36 for 26 miles. Couple of interesting things today. First of all the shoulder has not improved for us to ride on. Still lots of debris and rumble strips. As we approach the first bridge I am surprised as there is NO shoulder on the narrow bridge. The shoulder ends about 2 feet after the rumble strips making in very risky to get in to the actual travel lane across the bridge. Thankfully there is not much traffic on a Saturday morning. After being surprised the first time this happens a couple of more times, with no warning, so always paying attention to the bridges. The shoulder has been paved at some point but they have paved around some signs so about 3 times riders had to be warned there was a sign in the shoulder. There are also level crossings on this four lane divided highway, one of which we have to turn left on to leave the highway. I have never seen this any where else and think it is dangerous. It is obviously done to save money but I am sure there must be some bad accidents.

There is only one SAG today and not until mile 50. We stop at a store in Brookville at mile 26 to buy some chocolate milk. People are always interested in what we are doing and where we are going. We ride through Brookville which has some very big houses and yards and then regular residential housing. As we leave on SR 11 we have to go up the first of the hills when Barry realizes his back tire is flat. A quick fix and we are off. More rolling hills all the way to the SAG today. Different than yesterday and lots of fun racing down the downhill and trying to coast up the other side. It doesn't always work.

At the SAG Carol has made sandwiches so everyone happy. This didn't last long as nobody asked if we were finished with the rollers. In fact we were but, now we had hills to climb. The wind had been cooperating with only light winds and sometimes at our back but now as we were on the
Winding road to Kirksville it seemed that we were running in to a headwind at times. It was also starting to get HOT which made the hills that more difficult. At mile 71 we stopped at a store for something cold, even though there was just 4 miles to go. Everyone talked about the hills and one of the riders had a computer that indicated one of the hills, although small, was a 15% grade. No wonder I found it tough to make it to the top. However, the scenery was really pretty. Lots of farmland and beautiful rolling hills.saw a heron and deer today.

Even with all the hills we made good time so had a quick shower the went for a late lunch as still very hungry from all the work getting up the hills.