Some more distance - Summersville to Hartville

Lunch. Yum.

We managed to recover pretty well with all the catfish and sleep. Thus, once we were out of the Ozark Rivers (which were the same teal color as the Buffalo in Arkansas), we were feeling a ton better on the rolling hills that were still at some elevation (around 1500 here). We got out of Summersville early, made it to Houston by 10. Got a second breakfast and tried to get mail (hadn't arrived, so we forwarded whatever may come). We were heading for Bendavis, but we got there early, and the one store (which was also the one place to camp) was closed. This also meant that our lunches consisted of snickers and cliff bars. We took another 17-20 miles to get to Hartville for a grand total of 66 miles. It was mostly rolling, with a few hills, though none as steep as the ones in the Ozarks (a semi-reliable source says there were some 17-24% grade hills there). The day was perfect for riding though. It started out with 20 miles in a cool, overcast mist, and then, we had about 10 miles with clouds, 10 miles with sun and no wind, and 20 miles with sun and wind. A ton of trucks with horse trailers passed us on this ride and the ride through the Ozarks, but the drivers in this part of Missouri are generally better to be on the road with. In other words, I didn't think I was about to die every 4 minutes. Yay. We got to Hartville, didn't like the look of the courthouse lawn, so went to a town park by a lake. There was a group of trucks chillin and playing music, a group of trucks there for a coon dog trial (no Louisa, alack), and a little girl who was determined to tell me about the 5 sheep who she was goiong to have when she grew up. They were going to eat orange juice and milk out of bike bottles, but they would still be thirsty. The story kinda made my night. The coon dogs were awesome, and after showing (think AKC meets hoedown) the dogs, they went off somewhere to see how many coons the dogs could tree. We set up our tent, as did another cyclist doing sections of the transam, and I got to sleep in short order. A thunderstorm came in around 5am, so we got up and attached the fly. I was pretty happy with the day though; the legs felt great.