Rath of the Ozarks

DAY 23
Centerville, MO to Summersville, MO

An erie fog hugs the trees and road. Dew formed from the mist clings to my bicycle mirror and beads up on my arm and leg hairs. Visibility is maybe 100 yards at best. The landscape mostly resembles a blank void. If it weren't for the birds chirping their morning songs I'd believe we were in a post apocalyptic sterile world. Today we're in the heart of the Ozark mountains. This is what we've been waiting for, the last true mountains in the east. As usual the weather is threatening to make an already difficult day miserable.

It was a very foggy morning

"If we stay here much longer we'll get really cold," I say through chattering teeth. The water is now streaming down the angled road under our feet. What little cover the large branches from the trees above provided has long become negligible. We are drenched. Thunder booms in the distance. The rain had started so suddenly and so fiercely there was no other option then to take cover under the only shelter available, the trees. Now that the rain had subsided slightly, and the fact that we are soaking wet, the only option is to carefully continue on.

RAIN!!!

"Thank you for the shelter and the beer," I say as we head out onto rain soaked roads. "Oh and thank you for the horse strength icy hot," Becky adds. After leaving our shelter under the trees, we continued on into the storm. The rain only intensified. Luckily, ten minutes up the road we found Carson and Dirty B waiting out the weather in the garage/shop of some local cowboys. These were some real deal good ol' boy cowboys. I felt like I was in a Chevy Truck commercial "Like a Rock". They'd given us a beer (Becky and I shared one since we still had some miles on the bike today) and made us try a very powerful horse topical antiseptic for our soar muscles. Icy hot on crack.

Carson getting some help with his chain from the cowboys

Happy that the rain stopped

The weather held for the remainder of our miles but was forecast to storm all evening long. Seven of us now stand under a half soaked pavilion in a poor excuse for a city park in Summersville. There is no way all of us will comfortably stay dry, let alone sleep under here. With hail also forecasted, no one is volunteering to set up their tent on the soggy ground either. It was a stroke of genius to have us all share a cheap hotel. We all get a shower and a cramped smelly room to sleep in for only $10 a piece ($60 total, Dirty B isn't allowed to pay on his birthday). An incredibly better ending to the day than I could have imagined when we were standing under those trees soaking wet earlier in the day.

Heading into Summersville

Biker trash yard sale and Dirty B on his birthday

Stats:
Miles: 63.96
Average speed: 10.1 
Max speed: 43.4 mph