Frank the Tank – Day 35

Date: Sunday 12th September

Distance: 112 miles

Elevation gain: 7420ft

Net climb: 180ft

No photos today after I dropped the replacement camera in a cat’s water bowl the previous evening.

Team Stockham’s discovery of a bijou apartment in Ash Grove proved to be an excellent result.  The flat came with enough food for us to get a good breakfast before heading down to the garage, which was also owned by our temporary landlord.  He proved to be quite a character and showed us a varied selection of amusing curios including a wallet made from a frog, a series of IQ tests and a photo of a cyclist who had been “captured” and held, upside-down in a winch mechanism.  All of this meant that we headed back out into the rolling hills of the Ozarks with smiles on our increasingly bearded faces.  Those smiles were removed in short order though after a young driver yelled some abuse at us for no apparent reason (save perhaps for the lack of variety in his genetic coding), it is never great to get this sort of treatment, but it is worst when it occurs first thing in the morning, as it gives you the whole of the rest of the day to reflect on it.

The morning ride took the same form as the previous day with the road resembling an endless rollercoaster of fairly steep hills.  Our technique on this sort of terrain was improving though and so we made it into Fair Grove ahead of time.  At Fair Grove we stopped at Subway for the first time on our journey.  It proved to be a very time efficient stop with the best cookies that we have tried to date (Fred can confirm this having “sampled” five cookies during this visit alone).  We both agreed that Subway would be high on our list of potential stopping points in future; not realising at that time how prescient our decision would be.

After Fred had stopped at the local gas station to inflate his tires a touch, we headed back out on the road.  Fortunately, the rollercoaster ride had finally come to an end and the road for the rest of the day, whilst still undulating was less severe than our first session.  We made it to Marshville for lunchtime and a quick McDonalds milkshake and some fries by the side of the Interstate.  We also took the opportunity to get in touch with Team Stockham.  Once again it was a relief simply to get out of the heat, which was well above 90.

More hills, more heat and into Hartville, for our second Subway of the day; this time only for cookies and some drinks.  We also finally met up with Team Stockham.  Hartville was one of many towns which appears to have felt the full brunt of the recession, with most of the impressive old buildings of downtown sitting idle and empty.  It felt a little as if the heart of the town had stopped beating.

Our plan was to head to Houston, but we still had a long “ways” to go.  As we rode on through a number of hamlets: Graff, Bendavis, Bucyrus and a number of others that appeared to have passed cartographers by, the light began to fade and like David Hasselhoff before us we once again became night riders.

It was a difficult hour on a busy, uphill road, although our mood was lightened by a road sign which indicated that we could turn right for “Houston” or left for “Success”.  We stuck to our plans and turned towards Houston.  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the lights of our destination came into view and we were met by Team Stockham in a garage in the centre of town.  In a flurry of activity we also met Frank, one of the original TransAm riders from 1976, who had made it to Eureka on that ride before being involved in a serious accident.  Thirty-four years later, he was completing the journey from Yorktown to Eureka.  An inspirational guy who shared a few stories with us about the original TransAm trip, before heading back to his RV for the evening.  We rode on to our motel – the newly refurbished Lazy Bear Motel – which was the very picture of Byzantine luxury.  We then headed off to a recommended diner for one of the better meals of our trip and a few well earned beers.  It had been a long, hot and hilly day.

JBS