“I’ll say come on, come on, come on, come on and take it!
Take another little piece of my heart now, baby.”
Yes, dear reader, we are in Joplin.
It’s hard to describe today’s ride: like a lot of Janis’ music, it was all over the place, both beautiful and painful. It actually started last night, around 11 or so, when a formidable thunderstorm hit Springfield. By the time that Jon and I departed at 8:30, the pavement was still wet, but skies had cleared, and it looked to be a beautiful day. We took side roads—including a lovely bike trail that we had to depart too soon—to avoid having to ride any longer than was necessary on a major thoroughfare. That lasted approximately 23 miles.
At that point, and for roughly the next 13 miles, we were the Biking Wallendas, cycling a tightrope on a foot-wide strip of pavement—rumble strips to our left, loose gravel to our right—while every manner of vehicle from Harleys to Mini Coopers to double-trailer rigs hauling logs passed within six feet of our left shoulders… usually closer than three feet. And then it started raining.
We pulled over at a little one-room schoolhouse that was being renovated as a community landmark, and check the weather radar. A big red blob was headed our way. We had been planning to stop at Avilla for lunch, about 12 miles ahead. Could we get to Avilla before the storm did?
The answer was yes, mostly. We got wet, but not soaked. We had one huge factor working in our favor: the Missouri Department of Transportation had added three feet of smooth asphalt to the shoulders, right where we needed it most. The storms had also swung the wind direction 180°, so it was almost behind us. But our ability to move a little farther away from the white line meant that all those cars and trucks could just whistle past us without even a slight tap on their brakes. At one point, a semi barreled past me so fast that the backdraft in its wake blew my shirt up my back.
After lunch, the skies parted and the wind had shifted again to become a bonafide tailwind. Sadly, this did not last. By the time we reached Carthage and headed south for the homestretch into Joplin, we were biking into the teeth of a stiff headwind.
All of that notwithstanding, it still felt like a really great day. A little bit of everything.
Rideworthy 