[I’ve decided to count the days on Route 66 without re-starting at each stage: six days in May, and now Day 7.]
The day started out perfectly… and ended rather well, but there was a bit of unscheduled drama along the way.
Jon’s red-eye from PDX to STL via DFW arrived early. I picked up him up at the airport and we drove to my sister’s house, where his bike had been waiting patiently since May for the new rim that I brought with me from Springfield and installed yesterday. We got our gear squared away, oiled the chains on both bikes, put air in the tires, and loaded them on the rack. The plan was for my sister to drive with us to Route 66 State Park in Eureka to drop us off, and then Theresa would return with my car to STL while Jon and I hit the trail. We were planning on a short haul today, only about 45 miles to Sullivan, so we weren’t in a screaming hurry. We stopped at McDonalds for a little pre-ride protein (and carbohydrates and fat and sugar), and then had a little trouble locating the state park. Not sure why anyone would put the Route 66 State Park visitors center in a different location from the park itself, but they did.
When we got to the actual state park and started unloading, I discovered that the air that I had put in my front tire only an hour earlier was gone. The tire was flat. These are tubeless tires, so I tried spinning the tire to redistribute the liquid latex sealant inside the tire—I had just added a couple of ounces of sealant only a week earlier—but when I put air back in the tire, it still didn’t hold.
In the meantime, Theresa was searching for nearby bike shops, many of which were closed on Monday. She placed a call to Sunset Cyclery, about 10 miles back in St. Louis, and they were open and not very busy. I threw the tire in the back of the car and took off. Rather than re-load all the gear, Theresa and Jon stayed at the park.
It ended up being a pretty quick turnaround—15 minutes there, 15 minutes for the fix, 15 minutes back. The problem was the fluid, after all: even though I had added a couple of ounces last week, the wheel must’ve been bone-dry, and the fluid I added simply didn’t matter. The nice man at Sunset Cyclery added a sufficient amount and didn’t call me a dumbass (or even insinuate that I was). I bought an extra bottle of fluid in case my rear tire decides to misbehave in the next six days, and I promised that I’d place a good review for them on Google. Just like our experiences with Scheels the past two years, there’s just nothing like a good local bike shop.
We finally got on the road about 1:00p, and with a stop for drinks in St. Clair, made it to the hotel in Sullivan a little before 5:30. Our average moving speed wasn’t great, but today was a good tune-up for the hilliness we’ll encounter over the next several days: Ride With GPS logged us at 2900 ft of climb—net +500 ft—over 45 miles. Nothing too crazy, but constant: we were either ascending or descending, without much flatness. Tomorrow will be much the same.
Today’s highlight was the spotting of a live armadillo, foraging along the side of the road. I’ve seen plenty of dead ones on the road, but never a live one. It’s also worth noting that this armadillo is living in Missouri… and not very far south of St. Louis. Forty or fifty years ago, I’d never seen a dead armadillo on the road except in Louisiana or Texas. Now, in the 21st century, Missouri roads are covered with their carcasses. I’m not sure how a weird-looking, quasi-prehistoric mammal with a brain the size of a pecan has determined that Missouri is significantly warmer than it used to be, while roughly 50% of elected officials haven’t figured that out yet.
Rideworthy 