After a great night’s sleep in the icy cold cyclist shack, we had an exciting morning. We stopped in the center of Chester for some photos of Popeye-related decor.

The creator of Popeye, Elzie Crisler Segar, hails from Chester, and Popeye himself was based on an individual from the town, Frank “Rocky” Fiegel.

Then the first three miles were downhill to the Mississippi river, and afterwards we had ten miles of flat on the Missouri side!

  
After climbing out of the river valley, we stopped for a snack at a convenience store.  A lot of the places along the route have guest books (including this one), which is fun because you get to see who is riding ahead of you that you may meet later along the route.

We find that one of the most difficult things about this trip is determining whether or not to push for more miles or to hang back to relax and/or do something other than pedal. Today, we decided to pass on a tiger sanctuary about 14 miles west of Farmington, which we both slightly regretted afterwards. There were storms on the horizon and the ever present “pressure” to get mileage. We are keeping track of these misses, though, and maybe we will hit them on the drive back east!

Shortly after that, the rain started, which felt great, but we pulled off the trail at Twin Oaks Vineyard and Winery to stay dry.

 We met a fun group of women who offered us some of their wine and plenty of snacks, which were greatly appreciated. It was a pleasure meeting all of you, and happy birthday, Camille!

After leaving the winery, we rode into Farmington. While there, we stopped at the library and the post office, where we sent home almost six pounds of items! Outside the post office, we ran into another TransAm racer. Rachel noticed that his elbow was scraped up, and he said that he was clipped by a car near Pueblo, CO a few days back. He missed a day of racing while his bike was being repaired, but seemed to be doing well now.
We decided to leave town and head to Pilot Knob for the night.  It was a great evening for riding and we made it there just before eight.