I would have really enjoyed Missouri. The Missouri held the Ozarks, a jagged mountain range, providing steep hill after steep hill after steep hill. I actually delighted in puffing my way up, only to win 20 seconds of respite before doing it again. But there was something unfriendly about Missouri.
We just weren't welcome there.
"GET A CAR!!!"
"Oh, so first you hog the roads, and now you hog the sidewalk?"
The roads are twisty, shoulderless and highly trafficked. And tons, hundreds?, of cyclists following the Adventure Cycling TransAm route ride these roads each summer, pissing off drivers by slowing them down.. until they decide to not slow down. Before Missouri, we had very few incidents of motorists driving too close or blaring their horns into our ears as they passed. In Missouri, we just began to expect it. It got so bad, that we took an ugly detour through Wal-Marts and burger joints, just to relax in a 6 foot shoulder.
We've never been so happy to see a new state!
