Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Day 18 & 19


Monday we rode from Farmington to Owls Bend which was a total of 70 miles. It took us 5 hours and 3o minutes on the bike. We stopped for lunch with Laura and the kids at Johnson Shut-In's State Park. The lunch was much appreciated after a gruelling morning of rolling hills. We all thought Virginia was going to be the toughest stretch, but MO has turned out to be pretty challenging. The Ozark Mountains are not as high in elevation as the Blue Ridge Mountains of VA, but they are like a never ending roller coaster ride of hills. We ended the day at a beautiful campground in Eminence. Laura picked us up at Owls Bend because the campground we were staying at was about 15 miles off route. With all 8 of us crammed into the truck we made our way to the campground, but 5 minutes later Bob got a phone call and he asked Garrison and Laura to pull the truck over so he could make a phone call. As we pulled the truck over, a black pickup pulled in right behind us. Sam's dad popped out and surprised us all (except Bob who helped arrange the whole thing). It was a great reunion for Sam and her Dad!

Once we got to camp, our site was right next to a river. Sam and I sprinted to the water and ducked under the water right away. After being hot and sweaty all day on the bike, jumping into that cool river was one of the trip's highlights. We spent the night making camp, we eat a great dinner of pasta and meatballs cooked up by Laura, and then we ended the night with snores by the campfire. A great end to a long gruelling day of riding.

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