Day 27: Miami OK to Springfield MO
Today started in the mist, and light drizzle flirted with us as we rode the 112 miles from Miami Oklahoma to Springfield Missouri.
While the weather was overcast and spitting, the temperature was generally in the low 60s, so the riding was not unpleasant.
About 17 miles into our ride, we left Oklahoma and crossed into Missouri. For the first time on our trip, there was no "Welcome to XXXXX" sign. The only indication that we were crossing into our eighth state was crossing Stateline Rd. After a week of being in Oklahoma, many of us thought there should be fireworks and a marching band.
Our entire ride today was on small, quiet back roads. There were times we might ride for 30 minutes without seeing a car.
The scenery was varied: fields, streams, trees, ...
And farms of course.
Much of the ride involved rolling hills. Occasionally these were quite steep with one short climb exceeding 20% grade. Remarkably, a large portion of these back roads had very smooth pavement; although, we did run into short gravel sections and patchwork quilts with scattered potholes. Overall, this was just a great route and a fine day biking despite the misty weather.