The Thin Blue Ride - Part 2 Day 66 - Yukon, MO to Ellington, MO

Tuesday, August 13th, 2019

Ride Report:  YOWZA - THERE WUZ SOME HILLS TODAY!!!!!  Sorry readers, Delta started the blog today and I caught him just in time.  Gonna have to change my password I guess.  Now for the real ride report: 59 Miles, 2,938 Total Miles, 14.6 Avg. mph, 4,636, Ft.Climbing, 5,225 Calories.  I earned my whopper with fries today, let me tell ya.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a BK within probably 50 miles of Ellington, MO - population 960ish.  But I must say that while I don’t appreciate Delta’s form (who wants to be yelled at on-line) his sentiment is spot on.  There were some whoppers today.  Who’da thunk that I’d get climbing numbers to rival, and in some cases exceed, the mountain west?  And the fat lady ain’t sung yet - there’s more to come before we get out of Missouri and the Ozarks.  More on this as it develops.

But on with the day in pics…

Just in case the reader has been wondering how I fuel these multiple thousands of calorie days, it isn’t all fun and games.  Nor is it all Oreos, Hostess Cupcakes and chocolate chip cookie dough.  No-siree-bob.  There’s actual food involved.  It was baked potato night at The Rig last night.  Just take a look at all the goodness a guy can stack on one plate.  Ya start with a layer of baked potato, slather on the fake butter and sour cream, diced rotisserie chicken from Wal-Mart, diced onion, some sliced mushrooms (just cause they’re in the fridge),  then top it off with cheddar cheese and nuke it till the cheese glows.  Heaven on a plate.  The reader should be aware that I usually have a green vegetable on there as well (typically broccoli) but we had none available.  So – you health food types - if the only thing wrong with dinner last night was a lack of vegetables, stow it.

Camp last night was the Big Creek Freewill Baptist Church.  That’s a mouthful.  But it was located right on the route about ¾ mile South of Yukon.  Couldn’t ask for a better set-up.  When we pulled in, sitting by the church was a WB tourer.  I chatted him up enough to find out that he was a welder in his previous life (now retired) and on his way to California to see the Sequoias.  Well then - I can't think of a better reason to ride a bike coast-to-coast.  Readers?  Typically I’d have a pic with him and his name, but honestly – I was so beat I mainly wanted to get to The Rig and cool down.  Susan forced an ice cream sandwich on him – he was grateful.

This, readers, is a wild turkey.  No – not of the guzling variety, for those of you who imbibe, the gobbling variety.  There were two of ‘em running around in a field next to the road as I went past.  I stopped for this pic and they got edgy, so I could only get one in the pic.  BTW – it was wildlife day today.  I saw lizards, deer, a woodchuck (boy was he surprised when I got about 20 feet away) and fish.  And in an unusual move for Missouri, they were all alive – as opposed to road kill, of which there is plenty around here.  I’m pretty sure the state smell of Missouri is decomposing opossum or armadillo.

I thought this was nice.  Summerville, MO has “Veterans Park Square” – it says so right there on the sign.  Which also reminds the reader, “If you love your freedom THANK A VET.”  Speaking as a veteran myself, you’re welcome.

I had an idea what this sign portended.  And I was right.  Rivers in hills like this are like the Sirens of Greek mythology.  They sing a sweet downhill song getting there, then ya gotta pay the piper for that downhill ride.  And today we paid dearly for that 47 mph downhill: two miles of 6-15%.  Did the reader catch that? FIFTEEN PERCENT!  I was turning the pedals at about 45 rpm during those stretches.  And this happened multiple times today.  But as the reader can see from the pic, we from Kansas were here today to teach these hills a lesson.  Turns out it was a lesson in swearing at hills by the time I got to the top.  All under my breath, of course.

In fact, this is what the elevation chart for today’s ride looked like on the ACA map.  We went from Yukon, on the left, to Ellington, on the right.  If you’re unfamiliar with these things, any time a line goes straight up, it spells trouble…

This is the first one of these we’ve seen in Missouri.  By this time Delta was like, “What?  Now?  We’ve been doing this for three straight days and now they have a sign?”

This was one of those pics I just had to take.  I don’t know if they look the same to the reader, but a sweeping downhill curve that disappears into the trees is cool in my book.  Delta’s too, apparently.  Ya just don’t know what to expect around that corner.  Which is why they’re fun to take at speed.

But it’s obviously not all downhill.  I’ve named this pic, “Top of the 15% hill face.”  I think it captures my sentiments nicely.  I don't remember if this was the second or third iteration of this face.  It doesn't really matter.

First, not the difference between this face and the face in the previous pic.  Rivers always come at the bottom of hills.  This is me and the Current River (I know, I know, but I don’t name em) just before reaching Ellington today.  It also happens to be one of Missouri’s “wow factor” moments.  It was clear enough one could see the bottom of the river…

…and clear enough that I could take a picture of this fish in the water 100 ft. below me and maybe 50 ft. to the side.  So, one of you geometry geniuses out there - use that Pythagorean Theorem stuff and let us all know how far away from me that fish was when I took the pic.  And you all wondered why I mentioned fish earlier in the post when I said I’d seen a lot of wildlife today.  Unfortunately, …

…not everything I could see on the river bottom was supposed to be there.  Who drives over a bridge and says, “Hey – let’s take a tire off our car and throw it down there just to see what happens?”  They must have called a wrecker afterwards since the car wasn’t still sitting on the bridge.  I can't imagine anyone like that bothering to carry a spare.  Only in Missouri.

 

Susan stumbled across this today.  I guess we can all tell who the odd man out is in this threesome.  Sucks to be a llama in a horse’s world, I guess.  Poor llama, abandoned by horses.  (Used by permission of Susan Schoen Photography, LLC.)

This is Susan – abandoning me and driving away.  I’m gonna go hang out with the llama – he’ll understand.

Till next time.