Monday, June 20th:

Today we hit the road just after 5:30, right as planned. Our first 20 miles were the same as they have been through all of Missouri: Rolling hills. These hills are killing us, because we go straight up, then lose all of that elevation super quickly, then have to go straight back up another one. Also, the wind hasn’t been at our backs yet… until today. We had a slight breeze that was going southeast(ish). It wasn’t consistent, but it was much better than a headwind. Our second 20 mile stretch ended right around Poplar Bluff, and it breezed by. It was only 9:30 and we were almost half way to our destination, Charleston, MO. Charleston is right near the border/Mississippi river that we will be crossing early tomorrow about 105 miles from last night’s hotel. We found a McDonald’s in Dexter at about 67 miles, so we took a quick break at 60 and rode into Dexter with empty stomachs. McDonald’s was all out of ice cream, which for us was a deal breaker, so we headed over to Burger King just to spite them. After filling our guts we boarded back onto Highway 60 towards Sikeston with 38 miles left to go. We hopped off of the main Highway onto 114 and passed through Morehouse, then took our 86 mile break. The wind was at our backs and the boys especially were feeling like they could do 150 on a day like today. We pulled into the hotel, very glad that there was pool, and relaxed until the Bachelorette was on… fun…