Day 14: Escape from the Warzone and into the Nature

The endless barrage of bottle rockets and blackcats about the streets of Monroe City didn't come close to disturbing our first tent slumber since Vinton County, OH. Joe's replacement tent piece worked wonderfully (pictured below) and we awoke refreshed and ready to embark on our journey to Macon. Before we left we filled up on oatmeal with hickory syrup and honey scooped out of Sam's bag, and said our goodbyes to the man sweeping the Church floors.


And Luke decided to become a fifties wrestling star...


The road to Macon was a bit cramped as we had no shoulder to work with (it is gravel), not too treacherous though, cars and trucks like to give us plenty of room. 36 is mostly two-lane dived with a huge berm throughout Missouri, the picture below is part of the bottlenecked two lane that is about to be divided.


14 miles after Monroe City we came across the cleverly named town, Shelbina...ate the "wierdest pizza ever ordered" from the local Hunt Brothers pizza distributors,

got our ice cream fix,

and blogged our biker hearts out at the Public Library. Some little girls laughed at my (Nick's) spandex and I managed to get some new lounging shorts at the dollar general.

From Shelbina we took off to Macon and stumbled across the beautiful Long Branch State Park.


The water was record high and open camp sites were numerous. The shower house served us well and we gorged on whole wheat macaroni mixed with horseradish cheese, red peppers, onions, garlic, and imbued with Chef Sam's devilish energies (pictured below).

Thanks to the Monroe City Methodist Church for letting us squat under their tree:)

Miles: 47

Morale: fired up

no storms

no flats