Day 36 - Marshfield, MO

today's ride is dedicated to the memory of my mom, marion shelton, who left us this day 9 years ago. i always try to keep my memory of my mom as one of positive inspiration and not of mourning her loss. i know she'd think i was nuts for doing this journey, but she was always my biggest and most supportive fan in all my endeavors, so here's to you, mom !!!!

one of the logisitical considerations in planning each day's itinerary / destination goal is the fact that these small rural towns are not always within easy reach. sometimes the day would have to be almost too short or too long. today's choice by this necessity was marshfield, MO, 90 miles away. not so bad except a cold front was blowing thru during the day, bringing cool and STIFF headwinds. we grinded on thru almost 8 hours of saddle time and 20-30 mph winds all day to reach Marshfield. we were both toast at the end of this ride, which was replete with some flat stretches, but plenty of hills, too. the tough parts were climbing at 3 mph into a tough wind, and having a string of 18-wheelers come the other way to blow enough air to damn near bring me to a stop. very tough day, but we got there late in the day. a call-ahead to the city police was rewarded with the fairgrounds facitilies being opened up for us. bath house with hot water AND a hot shower !!! the thought of climbing into a hot shower after this ride was damn near orgasmic !!! took a LOOONG hot shower ! felt like new after that ! the only food we could find was a local chinese buffet, which did the job just fine. i'm finding that my appetite is off the charts after these long rides; i ate like i had a tapeworm, it seemed !!

by the time we had reached marshfield, the front had gone by and the air had cleared and chilled, with very low humidity. made for a fine sleep in camp across from the fairgrounds. best sleep i've had all week. nice.

legs were TOAST after today's ride, so a lengthy stretch before bed did me alot of good.

today: 90 miles
to date: 1945