Oct. 21 – Of Hills and Hostels

Today I only rode 45 miles – but don’t judge me! I met my match in the hills of SE Missouri – I survived, but it was tough.

Sometimes a picture is worth 1,000 words of my complaints! At 20 miles I stopped in Eminence for lunch and got some routing advice from a couple of local good ole boys. I will be leaving the Transamerica bike trail tomorrow as I head south to Tennessee and want to pick the best roads to ride on. Then I was on my way towards Ellington, where I arrived late in the afternoon.

There is a free cyclists hostel in Ellington that is run by the city – I stopped by but it was locked up with a note to call City Hall or the police department for information….of course it was late Saturday afternoon, so no one was answering. There was one motel in town, so I rode over to check it out. It was deja vu – the office was locked, with a note to call if you wanted a room. I called, got voice mail, left a message and then sat in front of the motel and waited. Within minutes the motel owner called and told me that rooms were $105. When I hesitated, she said “did you know there is a cyclists hostel in town? – you can stay there”. I explained to her that I had been over there but it was locked…blah, blah, blah. To my amazement she told me that she works for the city and is in charge of the hostel and would give me the code to get in! SCORE! I went back, put in the code, and the whole place was mine. It is a small house that has been converted to hostel with. a storage foyer for bikes, a dorm room and a big bathroom with a shower. A really nice service that the City of Ellington has provided for cyclists coming through. It was fun to read the guest book and then add my information and comments to those of the hundreds of cyclists who had come through before me.

I took a hot shower, prepared a nice dinner and read my new book.