Misery.

More Missouri. We got on the road and did a fairly uneventful fifteen miles to a place called Centerville. Another gas station. Another round of filling water bottles. Anyway, it was another stretch and to a town called Ellington. We had our lunch on the front porch of the library and checked email and such inside. We heard about another crew of cyclists and their decision to stay in Ellington the day before and not press on in the afternoon heat. I thought they were a bunch of pansies. Oh how wrong, how wrong.

We managed to regroup around noon and set off for a twenty eight mile stretch of pure torture. It took us about four hours to do it. Embarrassing. We were in the Ozarks today and the combination of really steep hills and soul-crushing heat just about did us in. We took a break at the top of one climb and our jerseys were drenched. It was as if we had just been fully submerged in a pool. Not sweaty. Not damp. Soaked through.

We took a break at the Current River and headed down a trail to the water. It was cold and beautiful. And not misnamed either. If you swam against the flow it was like one of those endless pools where you struggle against the jets. Somewhat. I guess there was more flora and fauna. We spent perhaps an hour cooling off in the river and got back to bicycling. The heat was unbearable. We thought we were doing alright in terms of water but were actually drastically understocked for the day. We stopped at an older gentleman's house and refilled. One more rescue. I probably put down five to six bottles within the stretch.

The area is popular for canoe rentals and tubing so there were all sorts of passenger vans hauling trailers with six canoes – none too keen on giving us much room on the road. The last hundred miles or so have probably passed without any speed limit signs. They just drive as fast as feels good.

We finally made it into Eminence around five. We surveyed the local restaurants and chose an Italian place that proved to be a wise decision. Enormous calzones for five dollars. Our original plan was to push farther for the day but the hills and the heat had knocked us flat. We discussed the prudence of pushing on. It seemed to be a tipping point of the struggle between old tour versus new tour. The old way would be to push on without fail to a seemingly arbitrary goal. The new way would be to recognize that we had pushed hard all day and only gotten this far. It was onward to the new tour and we decided that Eminence would be the stopping point for the day.

We chose Harvey's Circle B Campground but without knowledge of the half mile of nonsense road out to the spot. Really steep. Badly paved. Rutted. That may have been the kicker for the next mechanical failure. All wheels rolled down the final hill and into the campground parking lot where Jeremy told us his freewheel had failed. That means the cranks and the pedals spin, but the bike does not move forward. That's alright. Riding is fine, but not quite interesting enough. Mechanical failure is the ice cream on top of the cake. We were feeling low again. Thankfully, Jeremy has an aunt who lives in Missouri and he made arrangements to be picked up from the town. This particular campground was bustling. More than a hundred marked spots, cabins, the whole works. It's also right next to the river which means bugs. Big time. Even though the heat is up you have to sleep in the tent to avoid being chewed to death. Two dudes in a small tent on a hot evening makes for a stinky night.

Kyle's campground.

Current River.

The water felt fine.

Swim across America.