Day 17 of Lee’s bike ride across America is complete. Today’s segment was 121.7 miles between Cameron and Kirksville, both in Missouri. The weather today changed quite a bit from most of the journey to date, in that we awoke to ominous skies as opposed to brilliant sunshine. We pulled away from the hotel at 7:00, and almost immediately encountered sprinkles and lightning. We rode for about 15 miles, and as the lightning intensified, we pulled into a gas station/convenience store for a 30-minute delay. The lightning departed, but we started the rest of the rest of the ride in heavier showers, but fortunately they subsided in about 45 more minutes, and the remainder of the day was variably cloudy, with enough sunshine to get the temps into the mid-80s.

 

Missouri hit us again with more hills, approximately 6, 700 feet worth. Some were quite steep, hitting 14% grades on several occasions. The day seemed very long, especially with the lightning delay, and we were all relieved to pull into the often-imitated, never equaled Days Inn of Kirksville. The countryside today was pretty much lush farmland and pastures, with lots more green than further out west along the first part of our journey. Stats for today—avg. speed 16.3 mph, calories 9,566. Total mileage 1,935 of 3,457 (56%.)

 

Tomorrow we have a sub-100-mile ride to the Mississippi River, which we plan to ferry across, and then go on to Quincy, Illinois for the night.