Sunday, June 21: First of all I want to say Happy Father’s Day to my dad. I doubt that he or my mom will be reading this, or any of the blog for that matter, and I’m a sad for that fact, but I just had to say publicly that this guy, Frank Gladden, is just an awesome man, and he’s been a fantastic father, husband and provider. So this is a salute to you dad, for you’ve been such a wonderful example to me in so many respects. Love ya much!!

Well, today is such a diametrically different day than yesterday. Yesterday I felt this sense of renewal in the trip. Today, I just felt like we were back to the freaking battle zone once more. We awoke to a steady rain in the morning, and it was like deja vu all over again. As the Linda Ronstadt song goes “poor, poor pitiful me”, and I felt that as I looked out the window this morning. I mean shit, what can I do to catch a break for a while? The area of Herman, MO was just a big white-out with nothing but rain. So on we went to the morning news, and the rain that was forecast for last night, well, it didn’t come through until this morning, and it was situated all along the I-70 corridor moving from west to east. In other words there was a big line of rain and thunder storms that was moving all the way across the state in the exact line that I was intending to ride. Man was this ever a let down first thing in the morning. 

So we had no impending sense of urgency to get going. Went to this little continental breakfast for the Inn we were staying at, and then headed back to the Katy to sit and wait for about a half hour for the rain to dissipate. Once it got down to a light drizzle I got going, and again, with all the recent flooding, we decided to take the same tact as yesterday with respect to support - often! This way I could keep track of Judy, and she could keep track of me in case of any flood situations and detours. And wouldn’t you know it, right off the bat Judy hit a flooded section on Rt 94, just west of McKittrick. Luckily the water had receded a lot and she was able to drive through it safely. 

Me, I was just worried more for her the whole time wondering if she’d hit a flooded out area without me to help her navigate. So I was fixated on looking out at Rt 94 when the trail would closely parallel it, to see if there was any flooding or any road closed signs. So honestly, Judy and I were both kind of wigged about the day, especially with the weather looking so foreboding again. Anyway, she made the first closure with no issues on her way to Portland. For me, wow, the wind was out of the west with this storm system, and it was just kicking my butt with some very strong headwinds. Yesterday I felt like I was flying - today I felt like my bikes tires were deflated to 10 psi. Man it was a battle to even maintain 12 mph. And today the trail just felt like a false flat forever. I limped into Portland telling Judy NOT to expect me ticking off he miles as I did yesterday. Nope, today was a whole different story. 

So the next meeting spot was to be Mokane. This went better for me, as it seems as though the headwind died down a bit. But for Judy, another freaking closure on Rt 94 west, and this one was where the waters were a good 3-4 feet deep. So she waited for me just a mile outside of our meeting area. She had seen drivers using the Katy to bypass the flooded out area, and she waited for me so I could be her “eyes” as she drove on the trail, making sure we had no  one coming the other way. So that’s just what I did, sighting for her about a half mile down the trail, making sure someone else wasn’t coming at us at the same time. Worked great! And off she went to the next meeting spot - Tebbetts. This one was good for both of us. No nasty headwind for me, and no flooding for Judy. 

Ok, next up was the stretch to North Jefferson City. For Judy, another road closure due to flooding, but it had subsided enough for her to go through. For me, man, the headwind was back, the humidity was crazy, and I was feeling like a great big bonk was in my future. You can feel this coming on. For me I kind of get this really dead feeling, and sometimes I get the hypoglycemia shakes with a lethargy. And I was well on the way despite getting in plenty of electrolytes and nutrition. I mean I was just loosing fluids and energy faster than I could injest them. And then I had a nice little biff on this goose-shit slippery bridge just covered with a green algae. As soon as I hit this thing I knew that with it being so wet, that that algae was going to be bad. It was - my bike just went right out from under me like I was on glare ice. Hit my elbow and kind of did a superman slide with my arms up so as to not blow out a wrist or collar bone. Man was I peeved at myself! Just a bump on the elbow and a dented ego, but I was ok. 

Now the trailhead in North Jefferson City is just a maze to get into. And I’ve been through this thing twice already, and Judy once before this - and it’s still a pain in the butt. So anyway, I had to help her navigate from about a mile from the trailhead, in trail miles. Actually it’s about 2-3 miles to drive along all these little roads to make up that one trail mile. Crazy construction of this trailhead for sure. So we got through that and she parked. Now prior to all this I’d been kind of peddling away, trying to beat what looked like another storm system coming at us. About 10 miles outside of North Jefferson City, the skies to the northwest were just black. By the time I got to North Jefferson City the rain had begun. So I put the bike in the van and we just waited for the deluge to begin. But it didn’t. It just drizzled, like a portent to the crap that was coming in. 

So I got on the cell phone and pulled up the doppler radar of the area, and sure enough we were just along the southern periphery of another big weather system where to our north was severe storm cells. I didn’t get rolling because of all the thunder, and the possibility of getting caught in a lightening storm wasn’t too appealing. We just sat there for a good 45 minutes, with me napping at times. Finally, after refreshing the radar some 10-12 times, I decided to go for it and shoot for a meeting spot about 10 miles up the trail in Hartsburg. Figured I could hammer it for 10 miles even if I was imminent danger of getting myself into a storm cell. From this point onward on the trail we were not going to be paralleling one another. So when I went out now, I on my own until our meeting spot. Plus, Judy now had long support routes due to the non-paralleling nature of the roads. 

Got going with little spatters of rain here and there, with the western horizon looking grim for each mile that I peddled. Put way more energy into this section than the other just to kind of make sure if I got dumped on, it wouldn’t be for long. Down side of that is the energy I used in this humidity to keep a fast pace. I was pretty wiped out by the time I made the stop with Judy in Hartsburg. Was going to change out of my sweat soaked, dripping cycling gear for a new kit so I could get one more segment in, but the rain really began to come down. So again, I took refuge in the van and got on the cell to look at the radar. This time we saw a massive dark red cell coming at us from the west. I pretty much knew that being trashed, with 16 unsupported miles ahead of me, and a red blob of storm cell coming right at me…I was done for the day. 

Couldn’t say I was devastated, but the other side of me really wanted that last 16 miles. As it stood, I ended up with 60 miles for the day. My goal was another 80 for the day as I’d done yesterday, but, well sometimes you can want all you want, but it just wasn’t there. So we beat feet south back to Jefferson City and got a motel. The nasty stuff stayed north on our original track to Columbia, MO. So we drove out of the storm as we headed back to Jeff City. Let’s try it again tomorrow. With the temp forecast at 94 and with sick humidity, that should be another sweet ride!