Missouri

July 16

Salem, IL to St. Louis, MO: 80.41 miles 

The ride was pretty difficult for me because my whole body was aching from the fall. I chose to ride despite my crippling soreness because I wanted to cross the state line on my bike and see the arch in the distance as we approached the city. Getting to St. Louis required first crossing east St. Louis, which is reputed to be a very dangerous part of town. As we rode through the city outskirts, we attracted long, penetrating glances from nearly passersby on the sidewalks. We crossed the bridge into St Louis and saw the Gateway Arch to our distant left. We arrived at the University of Missouri at St Louis where we would be staying the next two nights. After dinner, Lindsey, Simon, Rose, and I took the train downtown to see the arch. The arch was much grander than I expected. 

The monument signifies our official entry into the west! Afterwards, we ate out at a sushi restaurant on Washington St. and met up with more people at a bar where we participated in trivia and I tried my hand at shuffleboard.

July 17

We spent the day building with the Rebuilding Together affiliate in St. Louis. J and I worked together to refurbish the front door of the house, which involved scraping and sanding off the paint (which quite possibly had lead in it, so we work masks) and repainting the door a more vibrant red. 

The house:

Before:

After:

After we finished our day's work, a group of us rushed over to the City Museum. We arrived at the museum a mere hour before closing. We quickly and aimlessly wandered through the museum, trying to take in as much as we could in our short time frame. The museum featured what appeared to be a artsy junkyard outside that people can climb on, an indoor walkable skate park, a cave with a 10-story slide, and many more unusual and unconventional features. 

We returned to the host site where we were provided a pasta dinner by Katy's parents. The night was concluded with a ping pong match (I get so excited when host sites have ping pong tables) with Chris while we nostalgically listened to Brand New.

July 18

St. Louis, MO to Belle, MO: 100.1 miles

Our first official century. I felt much more energized and less sore than I did a couple of days prior. We stopped for a Starbucks break about 20 miles in. As I stood in front of the cash register, ready to pay for my iced coffee, a woman behind me waved her card in front of me and told the cashier that she would cover my drink. "It looks like you're doing something important so I wanted to pay for your drink," she said, turning towards me. I was so pleasantly surprised and thanked her, explaining that we were riding a century today and that this iced coffee was very much needed to get me through it. She was excited about our cause and said that her and her husband cycle a lot, sometimes for charities.

Our lunch spot was the best yet, set in front of the Boles Fire Department.

The firefighters were very welcoming, letting us get into one of their fire trucks and try out the siren. They challenged us to figure out how to turn on the engine, a test that all four of us college graduates miserably failed because we got lost in the sea of buttons on the dashboard.

Trying to figure out the buttons:

They even let us try on their gear! 

One firefighter noted that I appeared as thrilled as the average 5 year old as I excitedly played dress up with their gear. We had a great time with them and spent over an hour there.

Our host site was Belle High School. The Belle County Fair was taking place just a half mile down the road, so several of us headed there after dinner. Katie B. and I shared a deliciously greasy funnel cake and I watched my first ever demolition derby!

It was quite the experience. Half the experience was simply people watching and witnessing how seriously the locals took this event. The announcer of the show sounded like he had several beers prior to holding the microphone and prefaced his commentary by asserting that he would not be a very good announcer. He informed the audience that there were not many cars to demolish because they were saving all the "good" cars for another town's country fair, but assured everyone that they would drag out the show to give everyone their money's worth. I'm guessing this information should have been kept a secret. Meanwhile, a woman behind me angrily turned to her friend because her night out was ruined by the shortage of cars available to demolish. The show commenced - cars crashed into each other and mud splashed into the audience. It was entertaining for about 20 minutes. We left halfway through and I was peer pressured into going on a ride called The Zipper, a nauseating but fun ride that twirls riders upside down around a Ferris wheel. 

July 19

Belle, MO to Lake Ozark, MO: 75.8 miles 

I had a ride date with Katie D. The terrain consisted of many rolling hills since we were approaching the Ozark mountains. The ride was very scenic but Katie and I were having a rough time from the start. I started getting a cramping pain in my left thigh, Katie got stung by a bee, my chain fell off several times, and I got a flat tire. It was humorous how many times we had to stop along our ride. About 5 miles after lunch, I was ascending a steep hill when my chain dropped again. I looked down and saw my entire derailleur hanging off my bike. "Well that can't be good," I thought. With further examination, I noticed that the derailleur hanger snapped in half. The van came to pick me up. On any other day, I would be disappointed to have to sit in the van but this was a blessing in disguise since I was exhausted and my leg was in pain. The pastor of the church we stayed at was very friendly and accommodating, shuttling us to showers at the school down the street and providing us dinner and breakfast catered by a local restaurant.

July 20

Lake Ozark to Springfield: 92 miles

I had my first biscuits and gravy breakfast! The day was very much a bonk day for me. All the exhaustion I've been feeling over the past month hit me hard on this particular day and I was struggling to make it through. Some fun things to happen during the day included my first hay picture:

....and stopping for iced coffee at McDonalds and sitting in these awesome stools

July 21

Today we had a build day with the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Springfield, MO. I worked on painting siding. My group completed painting about half of the siding panels for the house. Dinner was donated to us by Chipotle!

July 22

Springfield, MO to Joplin, MO: 78 miles

I was designated sweep today with Katherine. Each day, sweep comes up with a sweep challenge - some examples in the past have been take the best group photo or find a cowbell. We challenged our group to take a picture imitating someone else in the group. 

By 7:30, the temperature had already reached 80. After 20 miles, we stopped at an antique shop called Whitehall mercentiles to buy postcards. 

The store owner, an elderly man who introduced himself as Dr. White, came outside to join us on the store's porch steps. He told us several stories, seamlessly transitioning from one story to the next. One story was about his days as a theatre student at the University of Missouri and how simple cooperation with others enabled him to get ahead. Another story was about his wife of 60 years who passed away from a stroke. Holding back tears, he explained that he took care of her for three years before her passing and shared a few humorous anecdote about her. We enjoyed hearing his many detailed and nostalgic stories, and could tell he enjoyed telling them, so it became difficult to pull ourselves away to continue the ride. We could feel the temperature rising and knew we had to make a move. Allison chimed in, "thank you so much for your stories," as we started to gather our things. Dr. White replied with an analogy "you know, people are like harmonicas, you don't know they have songs until you play them."  This of course segued to yet another story about his variety of harmonicas, large and small, and how they allow a common language to be spoken between him, a self ascribed hillbilly, and people in foreign countries when he plays recognizable tunes.

We continued our ride as the temperature peaked at 100 degrees. This was the Missouri heat that everyone had been talking about. For the past week, we have been lucky to have an anomalous 70-something degree days. We had lunch outside a large industrial sized chicken coop, the collective squawks providing an uncomfortable ambiance as I gnawed on leftover pulled pork and brownies. In the afternoon, the heat seemed to bake my skin even more. Katherine and I stopped at a gas station to fill our camelbacks with ice and dipped our feet in a murky pond on the side of the road to cool off. Dinner was provided by the host and consisted of salad with many great toppings (grilled chicken, sunflower seeds, boiled eggs, cranberries, etc) and a baked potato. For the first time in a long time, I ate an appropriately portioned meal and felt great afterwards. In the evening, Hetong and I gave a 20 min presentation on a topic we were assigned before the trip, the topic being organizations and events that we can get involved with after Bike and Build to continue our involvement in our communities.