Day 3: 4/20/21: Gooch Boat Ramp to ? (Literally)

 Between all the animal noises, distant trains, and a sore throat, I did not get much sleep last night.  

Got up at about 5:30 a.m. and ride to Union City, TN, and ate breakfast at Penny Hill Restaurant.  The restaurant was decorated in all things 50's and had several photos of Elvis and James Dean.  A sign above the door reads "Lost in the 50's."  I think I am.  Restaurant is complete with working jukebox.

When I went to pay for breakfast, the cashier told me that someone had already paid for my meal.

I tried to draft this guy into Kentucky, but he was going about 3 mph too fast.  It was too early in the day and I had too many more miles to go to try to push it and keep up with him.

Goodbye Tennessee, hello Kentucky.

This message was on a business in Hickman, KY.  What the heck!!!

And then there are those of us who remains a kid at heart.

A few pics below of Hickman's downtown. It has really dried up.

Went across the Mississippi River on the Dorena-Hickman Ferry.  It was a lot more time consuming to cross the river by ferry, unless you have to deviate from your route several miles to get to a bridge.  It was much safer than crossing on some of the bridges.  Plus, for a bike it was only $2.  Where else can you go on a boat ride for that amount?

Me, the duck, and the bike chilling on the ferry and views from the ferry.

Goodbye Kentucky, hello Missouri.

Southern Missouri is nice for biking as far as the roads go, nice surface and no traffic, but this is all that's there.

It got exciting about 35 miles from my intended destination for the night.  The temperature started dropping quickly, and the wind picked up out of the north to about 20 mph.  At about 5:30 p.m., I decided that if I could maintain a 10-12 mph average, I was going to go the rest of the way to my intended campsite.  I rode west for several miles and was probably averaging about 9 mph.  It was getting even colder and the wind speed just kept increasing.  When I turned to head north, which would be my primary direction the rest of the day, I was struggling to maintain a 5 mph speed.  There was also an ominous black wall of clouds to the north.  I decided I needed to immediately find a place to pitch my tent, but all that was around was large cultivated fields.  I saw a grove of trees between 2 fields and decided that had to be the spot even though it was likely marshy or it would also be cultivated   

I found a spot just big enough to put my tent that was not in the ditch between the fields. Between me shivering from the cold and the tent fighting me at every turn due to the wind, I finally got it pitched.  I threw everything but the bike in the tent and it immediately began raining, with the wind continuing.  It took me quite a while to warm up in my sleeping bag.  I looked on weather radar and there was a band of green right on top of me with a band of blue connected to it on the north.  Me and everything made it through the night fine.  I stayed in my sleeping bag from about 6 p.m. to about 6 a.m., and got a good night's sleep.  Pic below of my campsite (taken the next morning after things had calmed down).

Total miles today: 72.3