Kiki Bikes Across America

Thursday, June 18th – Kyle’s Campground, MO to Eminence, MO

Another blazing day… lots of ups and downs today – worst day in the Ozarks, I think. The next three days will be hilly, but not as much in the way of huge hills up and down. We got up earlier this morning – I woke up at 5:45, the guys started getting up shortly after 6am. We left camp at 8:30 and were a bit faster this morning in getting going and were about 32 miles into the day’s ride when we stopped for lunch. We ate at Spooner’s, a family owned restaurant… fast-food though. It was decent… I had a BLT on wheat bread which was good and stuffed my face with marshmallow pinwheel things from the Dollar general. Just had a craving for those for some reason. We went back to Dollar General afterwards to use their bathroom and stretch, reapply sunscreen, etc.

We got rolling on the bikes again around 1:45 or so and had a really slow 27 miles of rolling hills and some steep climbs (about 4-5, I think). We didn’t have any gas stations for 27 miles and knew we’d have to replenish water. Luckily half way to Eminence there was The Current River, so we stopped there and Chris brought his water filter with him and we pumped water from the river and refilled water bottles, cooled off in river, and about an hour later continued on the trek towards Summersville. We had hoped to reach Summersville for the night, but got to Eminence just after 6pm and decided it’d be better to call it a day and try to reach Hartville tomorrow (85 miles or so). We camped at Arrowhead campground for $5/person plus $0.50/shower and the guys went off to eat and I cooked beans and rice for dinner and then went and got ice cream.

Pumping water and refilling bottles

Chris and George pumping water

At the ice cream (dairy bar), there was a huge church group from Indianapolis. A couple of the leaders were curious as to where I was biking and started chatting with me. One guy, Chuck, was very interested in our trip and says it’s his dream to bike across the country. I gave him my website address and he says he’ll follow our journey. Meanwhile, I had a cookie dough avalance and then went back to the camp, called it a night and crashed at 10pm… granted, it was still very hot and humid and made falling asleep nearly impossible. I haven’t sleep in my sleeping bag for nights now… always on top or not near me at all. I can’t wait for cooler weather in Colorado!

GPS Stats:
58.9 miles
05:36 moving time
10.5 avg speed
46.5 mav speed

Computer Stats:
60.12 miles
05:32:53 moving time
10.8 avg speed
47.0 max speed

Snake count: 1
Dog chases: 0