Peers to Troy

We reluctantly left the Concord Hill Inn this morning, after a wonderful breakfast of fresh blackberry pancakes, scrambled eggs with pepper and onions and thick-sliced bacon. The house and the company were truly sublime. It's always fun to pepper our trips with a few B & B's, since it's also an opportunity to get to know and talk to interesting people. Maggie, our hostess, did not disappoint and we feel sure her Inn will take off once the phone number issues are squared away. When we left, her friend David was back at work, wrestling the landscaping into submission. After some picture taking, both on our camera and for our hostess's website, we had an experience we haven't had since leaving home. We rolled DOWNHILL! back to the trail. After following the trail for about three more miles, we turned off just before Marthasville to pick up the Adventure Cycling Great Rivers Route and head north toward the Mississippi and Hannibal, Missouri. We'll follow it for another few days, beyond Hannibal and into Illinois and eventually pick up the Northern Tier Route to head east. Turning off the trail is, of course, a mixed bag. It is nice to leave behind the dust and the still air. Being so close to the river and so low meant not a lot of moving air. Rolling along on pavement made us feel quite fast. That feeling lasted until we had another experience that, until now, this trip has been lacking: a killer hill. It was no more than a half-mile, but we really can't remember the last time we went up a hill that steep, especially with the bike loaded. I began to flash back on all our friends' tales of the roller coaster hills of the east, and I prayed that when we reached the top we would stay at the top for a while. Fortunately, that's what did happen. We rolled along scenic farmland and "gated community world" for quite some time. A Gatorade break in Wright City fortified us for the rest of the ride into Troy. We will stay here for the night, only about 40 miles from where we started this morning. The heat and the map are creating three relatively short days for us; there are motels here in Troy, and then not again until Louisiana, MO another 40 miles away. Since today and tomorrow are supposed to be the hottest days yet, we opted to break this section up. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at an Italian restaurant here in what used to be a church. The bar was located where the altar had been! That gave us a chance to cool down and recover, then we headed for the library to do this. We have been amazed all this way at how valuable our iPhones are on a trip like this. Besides keeping us connected to home and the world (which might seem like the opposite of what you do on vacation, except when your vacation lasts three weeks!), they allow us to Google Map each town we come to and find libraries, restaurants, motels, etc. The next time I bump into Steve Jobs, I'm going to give him a big hug.

Incidentally, a P.S to yesterday's entry. Chris, Roger and Rick will especially appreciate this one. Although our friend Bob thinks of bike trails as perfectly safe places, as we rolled down the trail yesterday after the big conversation with all the other cyclists, we noticed something on the trail ahead. It was big; it was dark; it was on four legs and munching grass. A huge cow was blocking half the trail and quite put out that we wanted to pass. I began to flash back on the Great Buffalo Incident of 2006. Fortunately for us, she wasn't quite as ambitious as that buffalo had been. After a bit of skittishness and a little bellowing, we zipped past her and went on our way. Down the trail a bit at the next trailhead, Grumpy Old Man #1 caught up with us. Apparently he works with cattle back home in Indianapolis, so he told us he just sent her on her way. I can't believe I forgot to include this. Encounters with livestock add excitement to any vacation.