Day 32, Farmington, Missouri 48 miles

We left Chester under high cloud cover and relatively cool temps for a change. In fact, once we had a sweat built up, we actually could feel a slight chill on the downhills! Took a few pictures of the many Popeye statues around town, the originator of the strip was born here and the characters were based on actual townfolk he knew.

The crossing of the swollen Mississippi went well. We knew the bridge was long, only 2 lane, and had NO shoulder. But we were there by 7 am so the traffic was very light. The bridge goes over Horse Island, and encampment of Lewis and Clark early in their epic journey. The next 10 miles were glorious - the Mississippi floodplain on the Missouri side - very flat, and with a unexpected tailwind from the east, we were given a rare opportunity to use our big chainring!

Unfortunately, that ended as we approached St. Mary, as a series of roller coaster hills began (mostly up). Had a nice chat with the locals about the crops in a little store (where we we're fueling up on our chocolate milk). Almost all the dairy farms have gone 0ut in favor of large corn, soybean and wheat farms. They also told us how close to them the Mississippi's waters reached during the big flood of '93 - and how they hope it never happens again. Just the thought of handling all those sandbags gives them a backache!

After getting bored of the same variety of roadkill for 1300 miles (usually snakes, squirrels, box turtles, and an occasional possum), we're excited to announce some fresh armadillo!

We rolled into Farmington around 1 pm and had no trouble finding "Al's Place", the local bike hostel founded in memory of a local businessman who was extremely active in the community, plus an avid cyclist.

Looks like Farmington also has a vibrant "old downtown", looking forward to checking out all the quaint shops and finding a nice place to have dinner. First stop: the local coffee shop for a latte!

We're back from the downtown experience! Stops included:
-Barbershop where Mike got his hair buzzed very short. Shortest it's been since I was born (actually I probably had more then - help me out on this one Mom- it's only about 1/2")
-Post office, to mail out used maps, souvenirs, and misc. unwanted ballast
-The local healthfood store, where the owner, Marylee, told us to make sure we stop to see her son, a park ranger at Grand Teton National Park, and tell him she said hello!
-"the factory", which is in fact an old factory, converted into a fantastic gallery of little shops, booths, and restaurants!
-"the firehouse pub and grill", where we dined on fried green beans, sweet potato fries with melted marshmallow dipping sauce, and sandwiches. We passed on the deep-fried pickles, and couldn't find room for the fried Oreos for dessert. We are sacrificing our blood pressure and cholesterol levels to sample the ethnic foods the area has to offer.