Hit the road by 7am to do the 75 miles which would bring me to St Joseph & the Kansas border. As soon as I hit the road I felt sluggish and heavy in the legs. The morning was warm & humid. That was about as good as it got. It was a tough day today.
There were a lot of big rollers to slide up and down. I made sure to stop for proper breaks today, stopping at Hamilton after 25 miles, and then again at Cameron 15miles down the road. It was noticeable I was going slower than normal. My legs felt too sluggish. I seemed to be climbing an awful lot. In the afternoon the temperature pushed up over the 90's again. I stopped at Stewartsville to cool down. The lady in the diner immediately got me a large glass of iced water and told me to sit down and rest so I must have been a bit of a sight. From Stewartsville I pushed on for St Joseph, stopping once more for drinks. All in all I drank over 6 litres on the road today.
I decided to Stop in St Joe for a day. There's a lot of history to the place so it should make a good stop. Also I feel wrecked. The famous Pony express operated out of St Joseph. The famous James gang operated around here in the Missouri/Kansas region. Indeed Jesse James lived in St Joe & was shot dead in the town. During the Californian gold rush thousands passed through the town heading West.
All in all it made for an interesting stop but first impressions of the town were poor. It seems to have all the charm of an industrial estate. At 6pm in 94f I was cycling through featureless deserted streets debating whether or not I should stop aftera all. It was here that I saw my first proper live snake. A black one coiled around himself on the edge of the road by a footpath. Earlier in the day I'd nearly jumped off the bike in fright when I cycled over a strip of rubber, thinking it was a snake. But now I was tempted to get a stick and start poking the snake just to see what he'd do. But I didn't bother. I got to my room 15 mins later. Very tired and relieved to have got through the day.
There were a lot of big rollers to slide up and down. I made sure to stop for proper breaks today, stopping at Hamilton after 25 miles, and then again at Cameron 15miles down the road. It was noticeable I was going slower than normal. My legs felt too sluggish. I seemed to be climbing an awful lot. In the afternoon the temperature pushed up over the 90's again. I stopped at Stewartsville to cool down. The lady in the diner immediately got me a large glass of iced water and told me to sit down and rest so I must have been a bit of a sight. From Stewartsville I pushed on for St Joseph, stopping once more for drinks. All in all I drank over 6 litres on the road today.
I decided to Stop in St Joe for a day. There's a lot of history to the place so it should make a good stop. Also I feel wrecked. The famous Pony express operated out of St Joseph. The famous James gang operated around here in the Missouri/Kansas region. Indeed Jesse James lived in St Joe & was shot dead in the town. During the Californian gold rush thousands passed through the town heading West.
All in all it made for an interesting stop but first impressions of the town were poor. It seems to have all the charm of an industrial estate. At 6pm in 94f I was cycling through featureless deserted streets debating whether or not I should stop aftera all. It was here that I saw my first proper live snake. A black one coiled around himself on the edge of the road by a footpath. Earlier in the day I'd nearly jumped off the bike in fright when I cycled over a strip of rubber, thinking it was a snake. But now I was tempted to get a stick and start poking the snake just to see what he'd do. But I didn't bother. I got to my room 15 mins later. Very tired and relieved to have got through the day.
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