2014-07-23: Day 28 The Ozark Plateau, Summerville to Hartville, M0

We stayed in the Ozarks today. Not nearly as difficult of a day as yesterday as we stayed relatively high in the Ozarks and didn't climb up and down from valleys to peaks. To be more exact, we spent the entire 61 miles between 1000 ft and 1400 ft above sea level. This is the nation's oldest mountain range and it has been weathered and beaten down so that the highest point in Missouri is just 1772 ft above sea level. Teresa thought it funny that Success and the TransAmerican route ran in different directions today.

We continue to ride through small town America. Nearly every town that we ride through has a population of less than 500. Our ride maps give us some sense of what to expect in the town. Specifically the maps have symbols telling you if the following can be found in each town:

• a place to buy groceries
• a restaurant
• a gas station
• a motel/hotel
• a post office

Sounds complete but what we are finding is that some towns marked with most of these services end up to be no town at all. Just a gas station that sells some groceries and makes sandwiches. So we do find ourselves eating at places like the picture on the right. The gentlemen at this place made us a good Pepperoni pizza and entertained us with conversation about the area. He also asked if we wanted to help him milk cows tonight. He said he would show us how. I think we will pass on that opportunity. He keeps a log of the riders that come through his place.

This evening we are camping on the front lawn of the Court House in Hartville, Mo. The Sheriff dispatch office will let us in to use the bathrooms if we buzz their back door but other than that the place is closed up for the night. All they ask is that we sign their rider's log.