Joplin, MO!

Woah, 8 days have gone by and a lot has happened. I'm limited on time/memory but I'll try to recap some of it.

Bloomington, IN to Lawrenceville, IL: 85 miles
~crossed the state border!
~Pretty quick ride, shared life stories with 5 others to pass the time
~stayed at THE GAS LITE MOTEL! It was awesome, having a real bed. Some kid was shooting off fireworks all day though and a bunch of people got chiggers (insects in the skin).
~Our first real taste of flood damage. The fields were just all BROWN because the water destroyed them. It makes the price of food sky rocketing a lot more understandable.

Lawrenceville to Salem, IL-75 miles
~AWESOME DAY. I got in first with Jorge at 12:45. We were averaging 17 miles an hour after lunch. I wanted to see how hard I could go and apparently it's pretty hard. The only problem is I didn't stop for ice cream. Sad.
~We were supposed to camp in the town square but that morning a church opened their doors to us which was a welcome relief.

Salem to ST. LOUIS, MO-80 miles
~The leaders played a nasty joke on us. Each day we're given an elevation chart that shows the hills etc for the day. It'd been flat the last two days with a scale of 150ft or so, and then they gave us one for this day that was 5000ft with several climbs, saying we were entering the Ozarks. Kyle Rudzinski gave an inspirational speech (he wasn't in on the joke) and then by mile 5 we knew the joke was on us. They'll get what's coming to them-ten fold.
~otherwise a pretty good day, although HOT in the afternoon. We rode on a bike path for a bit and we were told we were going through a bad neighborhood. We added 10 miles to avoid going to East St. Louis, which is supposed to be really bad.
~A cop in Trenton, IL joined us at lunch and was telling us about the area/stories of his job. It was interesting.
~We got to the church around 3: 30. Showers had closed and we were staying at a drop in center/food kitchen for the homeless which was a bit awkward. 3 other people and I went to an apartment nearby to shower and then we had dinner at the church. The guy who was hosting us told us not to walk around alone outside which was a bit worrisome but it was fine.

Day off in St. Louis:
~I was not in a very good mood for most of the day. Joe, a guy from the cycling club and the mayor's brother came and took us to REI where I bought a bunch of stuff and then to a watch shop to get my watch band fixed finally. He was pretty informative and an overall nice guy.
~I saw "Hancock" with Will Smith. Quite enjoyable. But not as much as the metro ride back with Sophie, Emma, Lenny, and Jorge.
~Joe and the cyclng club brought us dinner which was delicious.
~After dinner, Danie, Sarah, Oliver and I went to see the Arch, which was the only thing I'd wanted to do all day. Joe dropped us off. I saw the Deloitte office building from the arch as well as signs of the flood damage. Entire trees were covered by water.
~The best part was while I was waiting for the others to look at a museum, I sat on the grass, under the arch, reading by book, and watching the sunset. PERFECT.

St. Louis to Potosi, MO: 90 miles (I did 70 of them)
~This was a pretty rough day. I woke up not feeling well at all but I rode anyways. I had Devon, Emily, Jo, Lynn, Jess, and Kristi to keep me company for most of the day which is the only way I got as far as I did. Finally, it got to be near 6, we had 20 miles to go, and it was hot. We called the van to do a pickup.
~We were supposed to stay at a boy scout camp but unfortunately this christian church group rented out everything the morning of to keep us out of it. We ended up sleeping in an UNFINISHED house next to a GRAVEYARD. At night, the graveyard had a lantern lit up and when I went to go to the bathroom it freaked me out majorly. Needless to say, nobody slept well that night.

Potosi to Houston, MO-90 miles (I did 15)
~I still felt really crappy/tired/not good so after 15 miles I went in the van to give myself some recovery time. Good thing. It was raining, and then 2 of the roads we were routed onto were completely gravel (aka awful for rode bikes) for 10 miles. By the time we realized this, it was too late to reroute. Everyone had a not so good day.
~ The people in Houston were great. They gave us cars to go to showers and we had pizza/plenty of desserts.
~I felt a lot better by the end of the day. My body had been telling me I needed a break and I'm glad I listened.

Houston, MO to Springfield, MO-100 miles
~This was a great day. I did my 2nd century and had time for ice cream (steak and shake). I kind of pushed hard because I really wanted to have plenty of time to finish.
~We made dinner with Nancy from Habitat. Then we did a post dinner wal-mart/ice cream run. I went to bed REAL late (10:30!?!?) but we had a build day the next day and didn't have to get up til 6:30 so it was fine.

Build Day Springfield, MO
~We were doing set up for a blitz build that kicked off today to coincide with a golf tournament. We were building right next to the MO Sports Hall of Fame.
~The morning was a bit of a waste cause a construction crew was doing a bunch of stuff. We helped lift tresses onto the roof and mostly just chilled. The afternoon was a lot more productive with blue boarding, hurricane clipping, and some other stuff.
~Andy's Custard run after work was a good idea.
~Free Chipotle for dinner
~adventure to THE Bass Pro Shop. Camo Pick up Truck. Enough said.
~I was up late again changing my chain which was a bit more complicated than I had hoped but thanks to Jess, I figured it out.

~Oh! and I got a hug from a lady at the build site cause she was so proud of what we were doing. That was nice.

Springfield, MO to Joplin, MO: 82 miles
~I'm at mile 76 as I write this. We saw a library and stopped.
~It's been a pretty good day. Lindsay rode with me in the morning. I've never ridden with her so we chatted even though it was pretty windy. I rode with Devon and Danie after lunch. We got to the library around 2.

Overall the trip is going well. But I can't believe I've BIKED from Boston to Missouri. Crazy!

Unfortunately I don't have time to say some other overall things. Alas, maybe next time. We're at the middle point of the trip timewise and we're getting over a kind of cranky phase and most people are having a great time. I am so glad I'm doing this.