July 25, 2014 - Pennsboro, MO - outside Everton, MO - population 319

Post date: Jul 26, 2014 12:23:33 AM

We are headed to Golden City, MO for lunch. I just pulled over to wait at a huge New Holland Agriculture/ Farm Supply Center, literally in the middle of nothing but farm land as far as you can see. I noticed a road sign- it says take an alternate route as the bridge ahead is out. I went in to talk to the people at the shop. They were very helpful and suggested a different route, so I will wait here to pass along that information. (Honestly- what would they do without me!)

We are under a heat advisory today, temps in the mid and upper 90s today and tomorrow. By the end of the day we will be in Kansas. Doug’s little sister, Hiedi, and her son, Dustin, are meeting us tonight, as they are traveling from Denver, CO to Florida.

A couple things I’ve noticed in this part of Missouri- many of the mail box posts are sitting in old, rusted milk jugs at the end of the driveways leading up to the houses. I really wanted to get a picture, but I didn’t think the people in the houses would take kindly to a stranger in a car stopping to take pictures of their mail box. I did get a couple pics from my car- I will put on fb. The other thing is all the dips in the rolling hills have signs saying the road is impassable in high water, and then at the low point where there is a little bridge going over the creek there is a water gauge measuring up about 4 feet so you can tell how high the water actually is.

My Trojan warnings from yesterday appear to have been nothing, or maybe it wanted me to click something I shouldn’t click anyway- so false alarm there. Whew!

I texted my daughter yesterday to see how she was getting along and she said my son and his girlfriend were over at her place that evening. While we are away, Doug, Kristin, Mark and I will all celebrate our birthdays, along with our 28^th anniversary coming up on Aug. 2. So I’m glad they can get together while we are away.

I seem to have picked up Doug’s cough, although he assured me he wasn’t contagious! He is still coughing, mostly in the mornings and still taking the Amoxicillin, but he is much improved. I have too many mosquito bites to count. Other than that, things are great! Once again we are blessed beyond measure for good health and good weather. We saw on the news yesterday that a campground was hit by a tornado not far from where we started in Yorktown, Virginia. So we can’t complain and feel very lucky. I told the guys that I thank God every time I see a McDonalds out here in the middle of nowhere. I know I will have air conditioning, a fairly clean bathroom, Wi Fi and a nice place to sit and spread out my maps and type on the computer for a bit.

As we leave Missouri today, I have to say, Missouri was the easiest state in which to follow the maps. The bike route was marked at every turn and the roads are straight and the towns are small. A+ for Missouri! Kentucky gets an ‘F’ for marking the bike route, which it didn’t do at all. Virginia comes in a close 2^nd. The route was well marked, but some of the towns are bigger, which actually makes it a little harder to stay connected on the route. And Illinios did a decent job of marking the route, although I still got confused a time or two.