Missouri - Out Gritting Life
Anyone who has watched the popular Netflix series, Ozark, will tell you it has some sketchy, rough and sharp characters. The writers had to draw inspiration from the landscape and roads of Missouri’s part in the Transamerica trail.
Arriving in Missouri, I knew there was a consensus amongst the cyclist I had come across, as well as blogs I had read, that it was considered the most challenging and disliked stretch across the entire 4000 mile Transamerica Trail. After studying the profile of the 413-mile stretch, I knew it couldn’t just be about the up and down nature of the roads. There had to be more to it that provides such a consistent experience across the people who had experienced it.
I would enter Missouri by crossing the Chester Bridge above the Mississippi river and the first 10-mile stretch was flat, fast and hot. And that would be end of that story. The remaining 403 miles would provide me with some of the more challenging riding than I had done before. The landscape had similarities to Virginia, surrounding you with beautiful prairies and bluffs that laid across the hills. But the rolling hills of Virginia were replaced by incredible steep long climbs, with equally steep downhills, sharp turns, and some rough roads. It was 400 miles of ups and downs with no opportunity to get into any type of rhythm. As cycling goes, or pretty much with any type of endurance activity, and life in general, it is all about finding your rhythm. And Missouri would never allow that to happen. I believe that is why it was so disliked.
But for me, beyond the challenging terrain and the lack of rhythm, the environment didn’t allow me to develop any type of relationship with it or with myself during my time here. The roads with its ever-winding sharp turns did not give much visibility to the drivers – luckily very considerate - behind for what was in front of them. And in return, the bike riders did not have any shoulder to have a sense of safety amongst the cars that we would be sharing the moments with. Missouri simply became about riding and surviving, with an element of being exposed to not nature but to other people.
By now, I started realizing this entire journey had me connecting with the environment with all its various elements with my emotions, mind, and body. But it was really about nature inspiring the connection within myself. Missouri became about the mental focus and physical challenge I would take on. Most people would alter their days by decreasing the mileage. I went the other route by significantly increasing it as the way I saw it, if I was going to suffer, might as well reduce the number of days of doing so.
I would travel for 4 straight days and 400 miles that would include my one day with Illinois. This stretch would see me stopping in towns Farmington and Ellington before taking a rest day in Eminence. The days were long, so the towns I would stay in would be very utilitarian in nature where I would rest and recover only to get on the road the next day early enough to get some mileage behind me before the day’s heat and humidity took over. Missouri had beauty, but only one type. It had good bike riding, but only one kind. From start to end there was no variety, no drama, and it did not leave me sense of wonderment to what we would experience together the next day. I would end up tuning out my surroundings and became singularly focused of getting through each day. It was difficult to even reflect about the past given my mind was always within an immediate proximity. There was a loneliest to it as people were not eager to connect either. My longest conversation in that 400-mile stretch was the 20 minutes I spent talking to a fellow bike traveler.
I would take my third rest day in a town called Eminence. On the weekends, this place would be busy with folks coming in to enjoy water activities on the river ran through it. But during my stay, it became a shelter to protect me from the sporadic torrential downpours, while I would rest my legs before the next section that would see me covering approximately 1000 miles over 11 straight days. The two previous rest stops would leave me feeling rejuvenated physically, mentally and emotionally. I would swim, write, relax and enjoy the nature around me, but more importantly the stillness of being. While in Eminence, I felt uneasy and restless; I had an urge to get back on the road and it became a battle between my emotions against what the mind knew what to do and the body needing what was happening.
I wonder why I was so eager to get out of Missouri as fast as possible. Reflecting on it now, I realized the stress of having to be so focused on riding safely throughout the day, combined with the long steep climbs took me back to a period of some dark days. The long arduous climbs out, only to quickly drop back to where I had started reminded me of my bouts with depression. The long uphill road to feeling normalcy and enjoyment would quickly disappear, dropping back to that feeling of hopelessness and despair as I would stare up to where I wanted to be. But this time, I had more control into my response. I would get off my saddle often to push on through as I clicked away at my shifters desperately searching for gears that did not exist. But I kept on going. Kept on moving forward, however slow it might have been. Life sometimes requires you to just out grit what life throws your way.
On my last day with Missouri, I would cover 115 miles from Marshfield to Pittsburg KS. Although, I would not cross into Kansas until the very end of those miles, my time with Missouri began ending around mile 60. The remaining 55 miles would feel like the two of us slow waving a goodbye as the landscape begin a slow, contrasting change as Kansas would welcome me with wide open arms and land.
I would leave Missouri without much to reflect on or with any stories to tell. I would not meet anyone, collect any memories or have any type of strong emotional connection, good or bad. Every relationship comes with a counter, it mirrors what you’re willing to give to it, and Missouri gave me back exactly that… just like Illinois did, and like Kentucky and Virginia before that. Missouri became simply a challenging ride that I had to grit out. Perhaps, that is what the show me state is all about. It wanted to know whether I was gritty enough to survive and get through it.
-Troy
Ride Stats (as of this post)
Days on the Road: 28 days (25 cycling)
Distance Covered: 2094 miles
Climbed: 99629ft
Flats: 2
Bike Traveler Sightings: 17