Bunker is a small depressed town of about 150 on the edge of national forest land. After circling around town we decided to find somewhere else to stage the days ride as there was really no where we felt comfortable leaving the vehicle for the day. We drove around for another hour looking for a safe place to park before giving up in frustration and bagging the days route.
We drove highway 72 to 21 down to a town called Ellington. Ellington was a larger more modern town (meaning buildings were mostly made of brick in stead of corrugated aluminum cast offs) so we parked the car and staged our ride from there. Our ride took us down state road SR K to Annapolis and back. Along the way we did out and backs along SR W and SR O.
During the ride H commented on my climbing form and gave me several pointers to improve it. H is an amazing climber and routinely walks away from us up hills. He has this amazingly smooth pedal stroke and high cadence as he climbs. He showed me how to push down with my heel on the downstroke when seated, and roll my ankle on the up stroke in a kind of reach and pull motion. I remembered watching the sprinters during the Athens Olympics and seeing that they had a similar technique - their feet seemed to grab the pavement and pull it behind them. This technique helped increase my climbing speed while conserving my energy - double bonus!
In addition he told me when standing to focus on pulling my knees to the stem and pulling my foot around the pedal stroke instead of concentrating only on the downward push of my foot. Prior to this little nugget I found I couldn't stand for very long on a climb because my quads would fatigue too quickly. Now I can dance up an entire climb without the quad fatigue I used to experience after a few pedal strokes.
I used the rest of the hilly route that day to practice these new techniques. I still don't climb as well as H, but my climbing is markedly better with just two small adjustments. Lesson learned - always listen to any advice that anyone has to offer. Try it, and take away what works for you. Chuck the rest - there are after all a lot of well meaning turnips out there.
Annapolis was the only town I ever felt uncomfortable in the entire trip. We pulled in to town and stopped at the local grocery store. As we walked in a group of locals sitting at a table at a makeshift deli-counter stopped eating and talking and just stared at us with blank expressions. Most people we saw either smiled or went about their business but these guys just kept looking at us. I was not getting good vibes so we bought some water, hopped on the bikes and headed out. On the way out a pickup passed and the guy inside flipped me off with both fingers. Needless to say we never returned to Annapolis. I should again point out that this was the exception - all the other people we met were friendly and we never felt uncomfortable or threatened.
While going down SR O I was nearly knocked over by a pickup truck hauling huge bales of hay. The driver had pulled around to give us room but I think he misjudged the size of the hay bales. The bales on the truck passed inches from my handlebars as the truck flew by. Fortunately I didn't loose control.
It was also during this ride that I started developing a mechanical problem with my bike. Occasionally when I would coast the back wheel would make a loud squealing sound and the chain would slacken and drop dangerously close to the wheel and spokes. As long as I was pedaling everything was ok. This made the downhills for the rest of the day difficult as I tried to keep pedaling while I whipped down hills at 40 MPH.
Back in Ellington we decided that it was time for pasta so we drove out to a town called Poplar Bluff - about an hour east of us. We found a Holiday Inn in town with an Italian restaurant and filled up on fresh bread and lots of pasta. We also stopped at a grocery store and bought pasta and sauce. Fortunately I had brought a camping stove along for the trip. None of the restaurants in Eminence serve pasta for some reason - must be meat and potato only country.
That night at the cabin we tried to take apart the wheel but didn't have a hex wrench large enough. E and M were coming down to join us the next evening so we called up to have them bring a larger wrench and a spare back wheel just in case. At this point we still weren't sure what the problem was so we made some adjustments and put the wheel back on.
Workout Summary
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