Day 31, 90 miles, Chillicothe, MO

Two flats before I got out of the hotel driveway, an inauspicious start. Sarge whipped into action with the first tube, but then I got a pinch flat*. Before you could say “pinch flat,” Gerard had stepped in and changed the tire in 47.6 seconds. He makes it look easy. So I was the last one out, which means I ride alone until the first SAG stop where we regroup. But the air was cool, the wind was still, the roads well-paved and the rolling hills had more colors of green than the Sherwin-Williams custom color chart. So one can choose, be bummed about the bad start, or enjoy the cool air, paved roads and many colors. While my choice was the later, the hills were really grinding it out of me. Until I reached Jamesport, a small Amish town, around lunch time. I had lunch in the Amish restaurant with Skip, Don, and Jose. We shared sandwiches so that we could have pie. Why are the Amish so famous for their pie? I don’t know, but they make one heck of a pie. The pie turned my day around. Skip, Don, Jose, and I rode the last 30 miles together. With friends at my side, and pie in my belly, the rollers weren’t so daunting.

Today’s Best Western has hit the trifecta. There are a Golden Corral, a Dairy Queen, and a Walmart next door. I’ve also gotten one of the deluxe pool-side rooms (perhaps because my roomie Gerard is on staff?) which gives me prime drying fence access and the ability to watch my laundry dry from the comfort of my room.

*There are many types of flats: the “hotel flat” occurs in your room during the night when tiny punctures take here cumulative effect; the “radial flat” caused by those steel thread in “steel belted radial retreads” that explode along the highway, the classical “puncture flat”, and the “bad valve stem flat”. All of these different types dictate a different course of action in replacing or repairing the tube and or tire. It’s too technical to go into now.