Four Rivendells

This morning, I rode to Ozark with Doug and Rae Nickell, Tom Barnett and John Dilsaver for pancakes at the Belgian Waffle House. We had four Rivendells on the ride: my Rambouilett, John's custom, Doug's Atlantis and Rae's Saluki as shown in the photo below taken by Tom.

Four Rivendells

Related to my Rambouilett, Robert Earl Keen sings of Chief Detective Rambouilett in "Mr Wolf and Momma Bear".

Historic Midtown's 21st Annual Old Fashion 4th of July Parade

The parade included penny farthings ridden by Jason and Isaac from The Hub Coffee and Bike Shop and James Allen. Looked like fun but treacherous. James has ridden a penny farthing across the United States and has a bike museum on Commercial Street. I am not sure if it is open yet.
 

Jason, Isaac (in the rear) & James Allen

Jason & James

James & Issac

Isaac

Hot! Hot! Hot!

On Friday, Dan Pfaff and I rode our July populaire permanent, the Marshfield Mash 112K. It was an evening (17:00) start again, and it was hot: still 97 degrees, only one degree below the record high set in 1931. The wind was out of the south to SSE at about 10 miles per hour, which did not help us much until we headed north out of Rogersville. The tall trees along White Oak Road and KK Highway also provided some shade. At the intersection of KK Highway and PP Highway, there was a barricade saying KK Highway was closed a mile further. We rode on, and MoDOT had been working on the bridge over Panther Creek, but the bridge was open. We made it to Marshfield at about 20:50. We were almost back to Panther Creek before it really got dark, although we had our lights on since we turned on to KK Highway. As we were riding down a hill on White Oak Road, I experience a weird effect of seeming to be falling into a bottomless pit. The road surface was very uniform with no center broken line, and there was tall vegetation growing right up to the edge of the road. It was apparent that the vegetation was moving, but the road did not seem to be moving at all. Very disorienting and weird. We made it back to Springfield a few minutes before 23:00. It was still 82 degrees.

White barn on KK Highway

Dan heading east on KK Highway

Red barn on A Highway south of Marshfield

Night Riding

Dan and I rode the Hound Dog 124K permanent to Aurora on Friday evening starting at 18:00. The wind was out of the southeast, and there was a chance of thunderstorms, although the sky was clear. After working all day at my desk, I was a little stiff and it took a little while to get in the rhythm of the ride.The wind died as the evening progressed, and we made it to Aurora just before 21:00. The southeast wind picked up on the return, so we had a good push on the north legs. We made it back to Springfield just before 24:00. While it seemed like I was dragging at the beginning of the ride, we completed it with the same time as most of our prior rides.

Heading west near Republic, MO

Cows

Marionville, MO, cemetery

Dan

Setting sun outside Aurora, MO

Aurora, MO,  control

Edwardsville Again

There was another full brevet series in Edwardsville, IL, last weekend. Dan Pfaff and I drove up Friday evening and stayed at the Innkeeper Motel in Hamel. A storm came through during the night, and we hoped the rain and lightning were done for the weekend.

There was quite a crowd when we arrived at 3:30 for the 4:00 start. Most were riding the 600K. John and I were only riding the 200K that I needed to complete the Super Randonneur series and John needed to complete his first R-12. Most of the riders took off at a fairly fast pace. The bike trail out of town was sprinkled with debris and there was a fallen tree from the storm, so we took it a little slower. The tail lights of the front group continued to pull away as we headed east on Fruit Road. We began to see lightning, and the rain caught up with us just before we got to Grandfork. The rain drops were big and cold and made quite a sound as they approached us from the west.

The rain stopped by the time we got to Pocahontas where we stopped to use the restroom and get some chocolate milk. John Jost (St. Louis Region RBA) and Randy Johnson caught up with us there and so did another major storm cell. A driver who stopped had driven through it and said there was also hail. We decided to wait it out, and since the c-store had a grill, we decided to have breakfast. We spent about an hour in Pocahontas.

We got to the first control in Breese at 8:30 (51 miles). Scott Thompson, who was making the bag drop in Vienna for the 600K riders, stopped to see how we were doing. While we were there one of the 600K riders, Rudy from Florida, pulled in having stopped at a church to sit out the storm.

We were in Okawville at 11:00 (78 miles), and John, Randy and Rudy arrived shortly after we did. As we were leaving, Dan commented to John that we were heading back with a tailwind. Unfortunately the tailwind only lasted until New Baden where we stopped at McDonald's for yogurt parfait and frozen strawberry lemonade. We also stopped in St. Jacob to make sure we had enough water to finish the ride. The sky was pretty much overcast by then so it seemed cooler.

There was a large snapping turtle in the middle of the Fruit Road being harassed by a dog. I tried to move it off, but it spun around too fast when I got near it and we ended up just dancing in the middle of the road. Since there was not much traffic, I just left it. It was big enough that most drivers would see it from quite a distance.

We finished up in Edwardsville (126 miles) at 16:04. Not one of our faster times.

Getting instructions at the start

Water off my front wheel in the crosswind

John and Randy arriving at Pocahontas

Storm approaching Pocahontas

John, Dan and Randy preparing to leave Pocahontas

One-lane bridge on the road to Breese

Randy, Scott, John and Dan at the Breese control

Lunch time outside Breese

Retro McDonald's in New Baden

View from the St. Jacob c-store

The water tower is 10 miles from the finish

Yucca in bloom

Dan signing in at the finish

Strafford VFW & Bolton's

On Saturday, I rode with Rae, Doug, Neil, Steve and Tom to the VFW in Strafford for pancakes. It had been a while since I had been out there. We had to slow for a Canada geese family crossing Catalpa east of Springfield. It was nice and cool riding through the valley. The VFW guys were glad to see us as usual. One of them had a nice Victory motorcycle parked outside.

On Sunday, I rode the Bolton's 115K permanent with Dan. We left at 6:00. We hoped to see some trans-continental riders along the section between Fair Grove and Bolton's and were not disappointed. We saw one couple eastbound as we were heading west. They seemed lightly loaded with just small backpacks. They may have been credit card tourers. On the way out, we ran into some aggressive dogs between US 13 and H Highway. They were still aggressive on the return, and I had to get off my bike to keep them at bay. Naturally, they lived at the top of a hill, so we were going slow both ways. The next hill over we ran into a couple from Oregon heading west. They had flown out to Virginia for the ride back. We warned them of the dogs. Another hill later. we ran into a single rider heading west and warned him of the dogs. Just before H Highway we saw a second single rider westbound and again warned him of the dogs. It was pretty hot when we got back to Springfield about 12:30. We were both glad we were not riding a 200K that day.

Geese crossing Catalpa

Doug, Steve and Tom at the VFW

Victory Motorcycle

Tom took this picture

Farmhouse and barn

Oregon Trans-America riders heading west-What loads!

Single rider heading west

2nd single rider heading west & Dan heading east

Aurora & Pancakes

I drug myself out of bed at 4:00 on Saturday to ride the Hound Dog 124K with James Doggett at 5:00. I am not sure why James wanted to ride so early. I would have preferred a little later start and not have to have lights and reflective gear. I got to the Fast-N-Friendly a little late. James was ready to go and headed out while I went in to get my card signed. I caught up with James before Kansas Expressway and rode with him until Hazeltine Road (FR 115) when I pulled away with the first hills.

The ride out was uneventful. I did not even get stopped by any trains on the multiple rail line crossings. There was still water flowing across the low-water crossing on FR 178 from the recent rains. There was also water encroaching on the edges of Zell Road, which had recently been chip and sealed. About the time I got to Billings, I began to think about breakfast. Usually I do not stop to eat on these short permanents, but I needed a reward for getting up so early. I did not know of a breakfast place in Aurora, but thought I would ask the clerk at the Casey's. Then I remember R & K Smoked Meats in Billings and planned to stop when I got back.

I passed James about 15 minutes out of Aurora, so I was about 30 to 40 minutes ahead of him depending on how long he stopped in Aurora. I had been pretty quick because I would be stopping longer for breakfast. When I got to Billings, I stopped to take pictures of three former gas stations along the street northwest of the rail line. The rail line bisects Billings from northeast to southwest, and US 60 parallels on the southeast side of the rail line. US 60 is where all the business activity is now located in Billings. It appears that US 60, MO 14 or both may have been located on the northwest side of the rail line at one time because of the former gas stations.

I found that R & K was closed, so I went to Petros Family Restaurant instead. Unfortunately, Petros allows smoking throughout the restaurant. They have a pretty good ventilation system, and there were not many smokers, so it was no too bad. They have killer cinnamon and raisin pancakes which is what I ordered. I had hoped to see James ride by while I ate breakfast, but I was only there about 25 minutes. As I left Petros, I saw a new sign for R & K further south on US 60. Looks like they moved. I was so distracted trying to cross US 60 to Petros that I missed the sign earlier.

As I was riding north on FR 57, I was passed by about 15 cyclists heading south. I said hi to several I knew. I was back in Springfield at 11:24, which let me stop by the farmers market on Commercial Street before it closed at 13:00. I bought some broccoli and patty pan summer squash.

James heading into Aurora

Former Gas Station #1 in Billings

Former Gas Station #2 in Billings

Former Gas Station #3 in Billings

Leaving Petros; R & K across US 60

Flooding and Chip & Seal on Zell Road

Low Water Crossing on FR 178

BNSF Train at FR 156