Day 22 : An Amazing Oasis on the Transam...

From Houston, MO to Marshfield, MO - ~ 64 miles

we got up early a headed out on the road in another attempt to beat the heat. we rode about 38 miles into the town of hartville, mo, which was a pretty easy and enjoyable ride. when we got to hartville, we found a great little diner with another cyclists welcome sign outside. we headed in to find, what i assume was the owner who also was the waitress, who was just one of the sweetest ladies we have encountered on the trail. she took amazing care of us, including taking all of our water bottles back into the kitchen and filling them with ice and water.

as we were just about ready to leave the restaurant, there was a blind woman who came in and sat at the table next to us. she was quite the talker...turns out that 28 years ago she lost both her child and her eyesight in the process of having a c-section. the amazing part is that she told us that it was through that whole experience that she came to believe in God and to believe that He was the one in control of what was happening to her.

after finishing our conversation with the blind lady, we took our full water bottles and got back out on the bikes. we had 27 miles, all without services, to get to marshfield. it was a rather easy ride all things considered...a few decent climbs, but nothing like the few days prior. we made it into marshfield around 3 pm, and found ourselves a nice spot at the dairy queen to get some ice cream to end our day or riding, and to wait for my friend, dave embree to come and pick us up.

dave is the campus minister at missouri state in springfield, which is about 25 miles from marshfield, and he offered to bring a van and trailer down, pick us and our bikes up, and take us to his house for the night for some air conditioning, a bed, and a chance to do some laundry.

so, shortly after getting our ice cream, he met us and picked us up and brought us to his house. turns out, the thing we didn't know, is that he also has a swimming pool in the back yard. so, we got some laundry started and then quickly got into our swimsuits and jumped into the pool. after cooling down, we spent some time blogging and chatting to people on the phone, before grabbing a shower, and then joining dave and his wife joyce for dinner. and man was dinner amazing...it was by far the best meal that we have had on the trail. fajitas, fresh salad, fresh fruit and homemade ice cream. quite the dinner to say the least. and great conversation to boot.

tomorrow we will sleep in and enjoy the bed and air conditioning...hopefully we will be back to the trail by 10 or 11. we are only planning on riding about 42 miles tomorrow, so a late start shouldn't be much of a problem at all. needless to say, this has been an amazing oasis. it continued to be humbled, amazed, and taught by the amazing hospitality that we have experienced as we have been on this trip. people have simply continued to amazing me! i hope that when this is all over, i can be more like these people that we have encountered.