Sunday, July 18 - Day 35 - 75.1 Miles - 2621.8 Total Miles

We are out of the “flat as a pancake” land that we have been in since eastern Colorado. Within miles of crossing into Missouri, the rollers started. It felt good to be climbing again. The weather, on the other hand, is a broken record. Temps in the high 90’s, humid, and sunny is all we have seen for quite a few days. It does start to wear on you a little. As I look at the long term forecast, I see a lot of the same. This will, no doubt, affect our daily mileage.

Speaking of the mileage, here is our ride…..by the numbers. Our goal, from the beginning, has been to ride 500 miles per week. Since our ride is 4100+ miles, this means we would be finished in 8 weeks, plus a couple of days. To get 500 miles per week, we need 71.428571 (repeating) miles per day. Since we rode more than expected early on, we have made up the extra 100+ miles over the 4000, thus, cutting off the extra couple days over 8 weeks. Are you following me? Therefore, if we now get in our 71.428571 (repeating) miles per day, we can get finished in 8 weeks. Since 8 weeks sounds good to us, we call 71.428571 (repeating) miles our “status quo” number. With this heat, we are shooting for the status quo mileage each day. Below that number….we finish over 8 weeks. Above that number…we finish under 8 weeks. Until it cools off, you are going to see a lot of status quo going on.

Kim found us a sweet little motel west of Springfield, Missouri, just off I44. The rooms were only $42 with tax, which is right on budget. Since Nathan and Anna are with their grandparents, we splurged and got two rooms, one paid for out of our lodging pool and one out of our pocket. As a result, there will be no “Bobby napping” photo for today. Maybe Kyle will get one on his journal.

Speaking of our children, it sounds like they are having a good time in Branson with Allen and Sherry. They have tickets today to see the Shanghai Circus and are seeing “Fantastic Caverns” tomorrow. Nathan was a little put off with the celebration picture in yesterday’s journal. I think he accepted our apology.

Being on the road as long as we have, I have lost track of a lot of things going on, both world-wide and back home. One thing that I have kept up with is the Reds. Every summer, I sit at home and watch meaningless Red’s games as they move in and out of 4th place in their division. This summer, it looks like they may be worth watching and I haven’t seen a game since we left. Now, with Edinson Volquez back, they are going to be tough to beat. Hopefully they will still be in the hunt when we return and I can watch some meaningful Red’s games.

Well….I have to head over to the truck stop to upload this journal, using their WIFI. Five weeks down…..thanks for reading.



Self Explanatory