Boy, we needed that! After staying out late last night and sleeping in way too long this morning, Pam and I had just about talked ourselves out of the 30 mile bike ride we had been planning for this morning when Mike called to see if it was too late to go with us. That was just the motivation we needed! We told him we would meet him in about an hour and scrambled into action!
We departed Elwood a little after 10:00 AM, headed for Ash Grove. Pam and I hadn’t ridden out there at all this year, so it was nice to be on familiar, yet not so familiar roads.
The ride to Ash Grove was fairly quick and felt pretty easy because of a nice tailwind that didn’t feel so nice on the way back. About 7 miles into the ride, we did have to pull out our dog horn when a pack of about 6 pretty good sized dogs decided to have a little fun with us. Most of them weren’t too serious, but then at the last minute one more came around the house to join in the ruckus who looked a little more sincere about giving us grief, so Pam pulled out the air horn and gave them a blast that stopped them all in their tracks pretty quickly!
Within a quarter mile of that, we came across an Ozarks oddity. At one of the parking spots for the Bois D’arc conservation area, there was a pretty good sized plot of sunflowers.
They were kind of overgrown, but were still a nice treat to find out on a bike ride.
We continued on our way and soon reached Ash Grove without further incident, stopping at the C-store there for a quick rest break. We hadn’t actually planned to eat lunch, but decided to go ahead and get a sub sandwich and make a meal of it. We did find out that Mike is something of a chocolate fiend, as he finished his meal off with both a container of chocolate milk and chocolate covered peanuts (which he generously shared with us).
We got a pretty good laugh out of the two very old scooters parked at the C-store when we got there. One had a “Miss Piggy” license plate that got our attention, but we really didn’t pay much attention to them as we went inside. While we were inside, “Miss Piggy” left, and while we were sitting outside eating, a very elderly gentleman came out of the store, mounted the second one and “putted” away before I could summon my senses enough to realize it would have made a cute picture. We decided that “Miss Piggy” probably belonged to another of the old-timers who were eating inside the C-store when we arrived. Must be a local thing…
We arrived back at Elwood just as it seemed like it was starting to get hot. I noticed Mike was having some shifter problems, so before we left, I took a look at his derailleur adjustments.
His rear was pretty loose, so a few quick turns of the adjusting barrel got it working smooth again.
We had a great morning, and it sure beat sitting around the house. Afterward, we treated ourselves to ice cream and a movie to round out our holiday weekend.
Hope yours was a blessed one….
TW
