Day 8 - Eminence, MO to Farmington, MO - 91 miles

It was a little foggy when I left Eminence, MO headed for Farmington, MO Saturday.  It wasn't much, but it gave me an excuse to turn on the blinking lights both on my bike and my helmet.  I don't know how much help they are, but they gave me some piece of mind.

I stayed in the River's Edge Inn the night before and realized I hadn't taken any pictures of the river.  I made sure to get some before I left.  I was told the day before that they haven't had any rain in three weeks, so that probably explains why the river was so low.

(bridge crossing the river back to my route)

(you can see the fog - it wasn't very dense and visibility was good)

The fog burned off pretty quickly and I was greeted by some really pretty scenery.  I pulled over to catch this shot.  I felt like it typified the roads I had been travelling for the last fifty or so miles.

Another bridge and another river.  No barge this time.

Rolling into Eminence, there were some steep, short climbs.  The first half of the day rolling away from Eminence consisted of more climbs, both "normal" ones and some even steeper ones.

The good news about steep hills is that there are usually steep downhills.  The day before I hit 47 mph on one.  Today I only hit 44. :(  It's amazing how planted and stable the CRUX is!

(hopefully the picture gives a decent perspective of the climb)

(the day consisted of rolling hills on country roads)

(riding along)

When I reached Ellington, it was like someone turned down the steepness level and the roads became much easier.  It was almost like night and day.  There were still lots of hills, but I was no longer pushing as hard as could just to go 3 miles per hour and hoping I didn't fall over.

(somewhere near Ellington)

There was a 90 degree bend in the road when I reach Centerville and at that turn was a little country store.  As soon as I saw it, I decided to stop to refill my water bottles.  It was only when I was actually almost stopped that I saw another bicycle there leaned against the building.  I went inside and found Tim Tait.  He was currently in 7th place racing the TransAm.

We talked for a little bit while the SUPER nice lady running the place made us ice cream cones.  This is Tim's first time doing the race and it was going pretty good.  He's from Salt Lake, but lived in George growing up.  We talked about the weather they've had (it's been good), what it's like riding 200+ miles a day - day after day - and what kind of gear he was carrying (just a sleeping bag).

It's amazing how little these guys are carrying.  I've seen 2 kinds of people on this ride so far.  The "normal" tourers with panniers on both the front and rear wheels and these guys with just the bare, bare necessities.  I've been mistaken as a racer a couple times because of how much I'm carrying and I'm carrying anywhere from half again to twice as much as them.

After finishing our ice cream cones (maple walnut), we said good bye and wished each other well.  I left first thinking he'd catch me given how fast he said he'd been riding, but I never saw him again.  I've been watching the TransAm tracker for both him and Donncha.  Both are half way across KY now with Donncha about 100 miles ahead of Tim.

Rolling out of Centerville, I was better than half way done for the day and found some more pretty roads.

The night before I had gone over the maps for the day and there was a note about a 5 mile climb about 57 miles in, so I had been keeping an eye for it.  I didn't know exactly where it started, so it wasn't until I was 2.5 miles into the climb that I realized I was actually on the climb.  I can't tell you how much of a relief it was to know the climb wasn't anywhere near as bad as I have feared it would be.

(somewhere along the way I went through Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park and thought that was an interesting name for a park)

Eventually, I rolled into Farmington.  I rode over to the TransAM Cyclery bike shop to borrow a 10 mm allen wrench.  When I was in Joplin, we installed 2 (of 3) spacers for the bottom bracket and I needed to add the 3rd.

From there, I rode over to the Quality Inn for the night.  Another 88 miles in and time to get some food and rest.