Hot, Humid and Hills through Meramec Springs

Meramec Spring

We are back on the bike today, heading from the Jefferson City, MO area south into the hills of the Ozarks.  While we had several days of very mild weather coming into Jeff City, it is back to the more typical hot, humid July weather.  Throw in 77 miles and 5400' of climbing, and it made for a challenging day.  Here is the track for the ride.  Beth and I rode the tandem for the first 48 miles and Nicholas finished up with me near Steelville, MO.

Near the end of the day we stopped at Meramec Springs Park to see the huge trout that live in the spring and see all of the trout they raise there.

So many trout you could almost walk on the water

The big fish that live in the spring.

While we were at Curt and April's house, Beth celebrated a birthday.  With the help of a friend, Loria Yeadon, I got her a pretty unique present, an autographed personalized copy of the "Modernist Cuisine at Home."  Nathan Myhrvold is the primary author of the book as well as a co-founder of Intellectual Ventures where Loria is an executive vice-president.  Loria had a copy of the book, arranged to get it autographed by Mr. Myhrvold and shipped to Beth's mom's house in Jeff City.

Nathan Myhrvold  is quite the renaissance man.  He entered college at age 14, has a PhD in astrophysics, has won Memphis barbecue championship, been a guest judge on "Top Chef", is a published nature photographer and was the chief technology officer for Microsoft for a number of years.

The MoDOT Orange Barrel Man

We want to thank Curt and April for letting us stay at their house while we were in the Jeff City area, take up a big chunk of their driveway with the RV, loan us a truck when we needed to go somewhere, use their garage for tuning up the bikes and feeding us multiple times.  It was good to spend a few day in the same spot to get ready to finish up our trip.  Three more weeks and Nicholas will be home again!

Another reminder, Jim and Heidi are trying to raise money for World Bicycle Relief.  They have made great progress toward their fund raising goal and now Trek Bicycles is matching all of the donations they receive in July.  So if you would like to donate follow the link below.  (Read more about the effort)

Click Here to Donate