Route 66 & Cooky's Pie Permanent

Today, John and I rode a 206K (128.5 miles) permanent from Springfield to Golden City via Miller. The ride was to prepare for a flèche to Grain Valley on March 21. Our flèche route is the same as the permanent, heading north from Golden City through Nevada, Appleton City, Urich, Holden and Greenwood before reaching Grain Valley. Learn more about flèches and permanents at Randonneurs USA.

It was a great day to ride with clear skies and a light wind out of the northwest to north. We left center city Springfield at 6:00AM. The route picks up Historic Route 66 (MO 266) about four miles east of Halltown and follows it until the route turns north at M Highway in Lawrence County. We reached Miller, the first checkpoint, about 9:00AM and Cooky's in Golden City about 11:20AM. Cooky's is a stop on the trans-America bicycle route from Yorktown, VA, to Astoria, OR. They have a notebook where riders record comments about their rides. The waitress thought we were coming through a little early in the year, but she seemed impressed that we had ridden from Springfield after we explained the ride. Cooky's also has great home-style cooking and pie. We were served quickly because we beat the lunch crowd and left Cooky's by noon. The wind gave us a welcome push back. Unfortunately, John had two flats before we reached Miller again. The most exciting event of the ride was when I was chased by a gigantic Great Dane just west of Miller. I managed to wear him down so that when John came along behind, the dog just gave him a woof and headed home. We made it back to the finish at 5:37PM. Not a bad time for this early in the season.