4th of July in Central MO

The roller-coaster hills of  north-central Missouri

We have reached another milestone on our trip.  We have made it back to central Missouri where Beth and I grew up and Nicholas lives.  We had a good time today riding from my brother's house in Versailles (pronounce "Ver-sales" in MO) to my parents house in Eldon and then on to Nicholas' house in Wardsville.  A ride down memory lane.... so to speak.

The weather over the past few days has been absolutely fantastic for this time of year in this part of the country.  Around this time of year 95 & 95 (temp and humidity) is the norm, but we have had temperatures in the low to mid-80's for several days.  You can't ask for any better at this time of year around here.

We are back in hill country, so the climbing footage has gone back up again.  Yesterday was a 90 mile ride from Harrisonville to Versailles, MO with 4300' of climbing... never going above 1000' in elevation.    (Track for yesterday)  David, my younger brother, just happens to have an RV pad in the side yard at his house that was put there by the previous owner.  So it was really convenient to stop and hook up right at his house.

We went to dinner with David and his wife, Cheryl at "Captain Ron's" on Lake of the Ozarks.  The 4th of July weekend is usually one of the busiest weekends for the lake.  We had seen a lot of traffic on highway 52 getting to David's house... more than I liked with the narrow shoulder and rumble strip. It looked like it was probably going to be a pretty busy weekend looking at the restaurant parking lots.

Beth and I were up early to ride 22 miles to our home town of Eldon and visit my parents.  Along the way, Beth struck a "gold mine" of Missouri license plates finding 2 plates in 2 miles along highway 52 and a third on the way to Nicholas' house.  Just to cover her bases, my brother had already given 3 plates that were hanging in his barn.  Now we have plenty of Missouri plates.... still not sure what we'll do with them!

While we were at my parents, we got a kick out of watching the acrobatic squirrel trying to steal food out of their bird feeder.   It was really entertaining to watch it just outside the living room window.

Just a reminder if you would like to contribute to World Bicycle Relief to help Jim and Heidi reach their fundraising goal, here is the link:  (see "Plowing Across Kansas..." for more info)
Click Here to Donate
Have a happy and safe 4th of July.

"Pop" (89) working in the garden