Best part of the day: Our Warm Showers hosts
Worst part of the day: More dogs
Distance: 41 miles Riding Time: 4hrs 22min
Bed count: 28 Sleeping Bag count: 20
Rolled out of bed around 6:30 to a beautiful, blue sky morning. Got ourselves ready and made the long walk from our room to the motel’s breakfast area. Waffles, bagels, oatmeal with coffee and OJ. Fay made up a couple of extra waffles for us to take for a later snack.
Finished packing up back in our room and we were on our way around 8.
Winds were fairly light out of the northeast (the direction we headed for the 1st 8 or so miles). Lebanon had a couple of neat Route 66-themed murals at a park right on our route.
(Came upon the active motel on the eastern side of Lebanon. 73 years in business! Wow!!)
Today’s route, all on Route 66 stayed pretty close to I-44 for the most part, but, trees and other green foliage provided an enjoyable path. Had a couple of times where dogs came at us! Fortunately, they were all bark and no bite!
Our ACA route led us to the Gasconade River and the old bridge that crossed it. This bridge has been condemned for at least a couple of years and had been blocked with guardrails on both ends! There was a new bridge under construction next to the old bridge’s site. But, folks who live around there would like to see the old one refurbished, though, because of its history.
(You can make out the guardrail blocking the pathway through Rob’s bike.)
The ACA Updates and Corrections sheet warned us about this and listed two detours, neither of which appealed to us. ACA also said that it was passable for bikes which is what we chose. Arriving there, we just offloaded our bags, lifted the bikes over the guardrail, reloaded and walked to the other side and did the same to get back on the route. A lot better than either getting on I-44 or taking an 13-additional-mile, rural road detour.
(You can see how deteriorated this old bridge is from the roadway and the curbing. But, it is an original! Soon it’ll be gone! So sad.)
Further down the road, stopped at a small general store/bait shop/hunting license place. Picked up something to drink and had those extra waffles from this morning. It was a nice break.
Rolling on, we eventually rode into the town of Waynesville. They, too, had a neat mural on a building side. We stopped for pictures there and who would drive up? None other than the Waynesville mayor, Luge Hardman!! She offered to take our picture with the mural and even gave us Route 66 pins! She was so nice!!
We had a nice climb out of town (other bloggers had said that this was a tough climb, not to us!). Up next was the town of St. Robert and the home of our Warm Showers hosts, George and Kay Young. George wanted to pick us up at a truck stop close to our route as their place was a ways up the hill on narrow roads. He’d done this with other cyclists they’ve hosted.
Arriving at his home, we got introduced to their furry family member, a “small”, 5-year-old dog named Finley. Finley was an Irish Wolfhound and George said that she weighed about 150lbs!! A very affectionate dog! Always wanted to be around us! We loved it!!
(Relaxing on the kitchen floor. Blocks the entire pathway!!)
(Just to give your a perspective on Finley’s size!!)
George showed us to our very nice downstairs room. In addition, his downstairs had a full bath along with a combination exercise and TV area. Anything thing we needed, he made available. Another fantastic host!!
Dinner was at around 6:30 and George made a wonderful meal of BBQ chicken, BBQ corn, a green salad, macaroni salad and toasted sourdough bread. Kay, his wife and a nurse at a local hospital, got home around 8. We were glad she could off early because normally her shift wouldn’t end until around 11:30!! The four of us ontinued to sit at the table and chatted all the way up to 9:45!! They are such wonderful people!! We hit it off so well with them.
Tomorrow, our plan is to ride to our 2nd “saint” town, St. James. But, if the weather is more favorable, we may push on to Cuba. Only the conditions will tell.
Until our next post….
Fay's and Rob's Epic Journey #4 