Day 30: Van Buren to Sikeston
Today's 114 mile ride from Van Buren to Sikeston was fabulous. Throughout the morning, we rode on wonderfully paved, extremely quiet, winding back roads through the Ozark foothills. While the views do not have the drama of so many of the western landscapes, for me, the simple beauty and serenity of these roads made this morning the most enjoyable biking on the trip so far.
The morning started with some fog and quite a chill, with temperatures in the mid 30s.
With the hills and trees, it took quite some time before we could consistently feel the sun's warmth. Much of the morning, we were in the shade.
The dapple light and rolling hills meant every mile felt different. The quality of the roads added tremendously to the experience. After 29 days on the bike, we are all profoundly grateful when we are not bouncing over cracks or having our hands go numb from the vibrations of rough pavement.
I confess to having no idea what this stone entity is, but it was sufficiently unusual that I thought I would take its photo.
We had lunch at picnic site along this lake.
At some point, I passed this little store with the antique tow truck out front.
After lunch, we exited the Ozark foothills and entered the plains. Here we saw our first cotton fields of the trip. In some places, there were cotton balls being blown across the road.
From a distance, the cotton fields are just white speckled swaths across the landscape.
Tomorrow, we cross both the Mississippi and Ohio rivers just before they merge. We will spend the night in Puducah Kentucky, entering the ninth of the twelve states we will visit on this trip.