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Thursday 8th July 2004

Farmington, Missouri, in the City Park, to Owl's Bend, Ozark Hills. About 76 miles, and quite enough at that! The Ozarks are called "mountains", but they're actually just large hills peaking at around 1700 feet, so in theory they are not too difficult to cycle over. However, whoever designed the roads here largely ignored contour lines, so a road is often very straight, but makes many completely unnecessary ups and downs. In ordinary temperatures, this would be very charming, etc, etc. But it is very hot (90F plus and humid), so the charm was reduced. Farmington to Pilot Knob (Civil War battlefield) was easy going, finishing with a pleasant conversation with, firstly, an slightly inebriated man waiting for the liquor store to open, and secondly, a WW2 veteran, who told us about landing on the Normandy beaches when he was (to quote) 'just a kid'. Fascinating. He had a number plate of "WW2 VET". Then on to Johnson's "Shut Ins" - basically swimming pools in a tumbling river. Steve had a very quick swim because, as usual, we are running late. At Johnson's, we found other cyclists - a tandem recumebent with Bill and his daughter Jenny who were also doing the transAm. Then the road got hillier and hillier! Owl's Bend offered basic facilities (12 dollars for two people) - chemical toilets, water, but not showers at all. Pity considering the number of insects stuck to me today (even in the 30 miles since the swim in the river!). Had a swim in the Current River (see photo) instead of a shower. The current of the Current River was strong. The popular sport here is drifting downstream in a thing that looks like an overinflated inner tube. But deliciously tinglingly cold and clean. Slept well.

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