"Day of rest .... Day of planning"
The next day we reserved for planning the trip. We had some ideas about what we could do but still had not made a decision. There was a lot on our minds. The day before had been very tough, but we did effectively bike our way through, and out of, the Ozarks. The terrain would be better up ahead. We were still both concerned about the change in attitude of people towards cyclists. Despite the existence of the Katy trail in Missouri, the people here are quite different from, and not nearly as friendly as they were in Kansas. These things aside, we are still pressed with time and decisions to make. We had until 12:00 noon to check out of our hotel and we wanted to decide by then if at all possible. We still had two options:
1) We could make up our own route from Farmington, MO to St. Augustine, FL. We would have to bike at least 70 miles a day. Our average so far has been just over 50 (it was over 70 when we went through Kansas and the terrain flattened out). We would probably be able to do this but the increased pressure and not knowing what the terrain will be like would make this diffiucult. Part of the frustration of the day before was being faced with such tough terrain while at the same time feeling like we needed to cover more ground in a day.
2) We found that there was a Hertz rent-a-car. We could get picked up from our hotel, rent a small (and hopefully efficient car), get a bike rack, drive to a cycling route, and drop the car off there. Along the way we could do some sight-seeing. With Emily's USAA discount, this would be affordable even with having to pay a fee to drop the car off on the other side of the country. Our plan would be to drive to Washington, D.C on the first day, take a tourist day there, drive to Myrtle Beach, SC, meet up with the Eastern Coast Adventure Cycling route, and bike to St. Augustine, FL. We would have a car available tomorrow.
The minutes clicked by as we considered the options and what we really wanted to get out of the trip. Is it about just biking across the country or is it about getting to see as much as we can?
We walked over to the A&W Root Beer restaurant for a Root Beer float to help us think things over. This was a difficult decision and an incredible turning point for our trip. It was not an easy decision for us to make as we were strongly torn in very different directions. On the one hand we have been really enjoying the biking and the experinces that you get from it, on the other hand we would be able to bike and experience different areas from where we have been. We have seen a lot of cornfields aready.
We decided to rent the car and continue our biking trip on the Eastern coast in South Carolina. We would have about 400 miles of biking ahead of us, in an area very different from where we are now. We have biked over 2,300 miles aready. The entire length of the Southern Tier, the original route that we were going to take across the country, is 2,800 miles long. Doing this, we won't be missing out on any miles on our biking trip, but we will be able to diversify our experences along the way.
We were still hesitant, but decided to proceed in this direction.
Then, we felt like we needed a break from thinking about these things. We walked across the parking lot to Walmart to get things for our "roadtrip," and then we decided to go to the movie theater (also in the same parking lot as our hotel - we picked a very convenient place to stop!). We went to see "Zookeeper" and to eat a large bucket of popcorn. The movie was much better than we were expecting it to be and we really enjoyed the expereince.
In the mean time: We had been carrying around an extra tire. Emily's front tire has a lot of miles on it (from the original owner of the bike as well), and we decided to replace it.
21 July 2011
"On the road again"
We loaded up our rental car and headed out! This was a very long day of driving!
Our view of the Gateway Arches behind the Cardinal's Field in St. Louis, MO. (Since we were driving, we decided we should at least see the big city, something we would have been hesitant to do on our bicycles.)
We would eventually make it all of the way to Washington, D.C that night. The next day we spent exploring. Then, on the following day we drove to South Carolina. Now we are back on our bikes and heading a short distance over to the Adventure Cycling route. We will add a lot more on our experiences through these few days but we wanted to make a breif update now to let people know what we have been up to lately (generally, and that more imprtantly we are still alive!.).
Right now [24 July 2011, 2:00 PM] we are sitting at the Pancake House in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They seem to be closing so we will hit the road once again!
...
Emily just reviewed the blog before posting it. We did hit the road! But then, the rain (and lightning) chased us into McDonalds, and now it is 3:30 PM ... We didn't get to bike many miles.
Location:Farmington, MO to ????
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