The travels of the Rambling Roses: Springfield, MO to Mansfield, MO April 19

April 19.....42.21 miles in about 3:42..... I took my time getting out if bed this morning, because that Walmart parking lot was sooo comfortable. I had decided to take a shorter ride today, because of another day of headwinds and elevation gain. Camping opportunities are a little sparse through this stretch of the Ozarks, and I chose the shorter stop, as opposed to a longer ride.

It actually turned out to be a real nice day, with highs in the mid seventies, and just like yesterday, the headwind wasn't terrible, it was just enough to cause me to go down one or two gears, and that adds up to lost mph. It was another day on US 60, but today I decided to do some of the business loops in some of the small towns I went through, so I was on a lot more of 'old' 60 instead of the four lane. I actually liked the four lane more, as far as smooth ride, shoulders, and taking some of the steeper rollers out of the equation. I started out the day with a pretty significant climb out of Springfield, and today's ride was about two hundred ft more elevated than yesterday. Right outside of Springfield, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame was right on 60, so I stopped and toured the busts of inductees that were outside the main building. It had a very local flavor for me, as Stan Musial, who was born in Donora, PA, George Brett, who was born in Wheeling, and Bill Virdon, who played and coached fir the Pirates had busts. Other notables like Rusty Wallace of NASCAR, Payne Stewart from golf, and lots of Major League Baseball players also were represented.I did a total climb of about 1600 ft today, and towards the end of the ride, I actually saw something that resembled hills and hollows, instead of the wavey plateau I've been riding across, since I've been in the Ozarks. There were some nice rock formations starting to appear near Mansfield, which is really the only way you can tell you're riding on the top of a mountain range. I think, however, that I will be getting into some more scenic hills ahead, because there are towns called Mountain View, Mountain Grove, and we are getting closer to the Mark Twain National Forest and some vacation spots.

The most unique part of my ride, were the towns of Diggins, and Seymour, where there was a large Amish population, and I had to share the shoulder with horses and buggies, as well as dodge all the horse poop as I rode. I rode 'old60' through Seymour and saw a couple of roadside auctions going on, and I think that's where all the buggies were going, on a Saturday morning.

Pam found an off the beaten path campground that was very wide open, with freshly cut grass, in Mansfield. It was very near the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote the Little House on the Prairie books. We drove over to see the museum, but when Pam saw the $10 a person price tag, she decided that she didn't want to see it THAT bad, so we took a picture, and came home to watch the caretaker of the campground cut grass, and grill steaks for supper. But I did go to the Mansfield cemetery to see Laura's grave!