Day 22: Johnson Shut-Ins to Marshfield, MO
distance: 91 mi

Day 23: Marshfield to Golden City, MO
distance: 85 mi

Back blogging is a difficult thing. You can never give all the detail you would like to. The longer you wait to write, the more likely your memory of detail fades. I have an overload of stories I could tell you about of things just within the last week. Give me several hours and a tub of ice cream and I'll start talking. Finding internet sources is not an easy task on the road, and I gave up on the cell phone updates long time ago. It's just too much effort to thumb-type everything with character limitations. 

We are currently in Kansas, already over half way through. Missouri, despite the countless mountains, was a blast. Flowing rivers, lake reservoirs, and an abundance of greenery. To me, Missouri is the state of fresh flowing water. Everyday we took random pit stops at rivers and lakes along the route. At Johnson Shut-Ins, right in the midsts of the Ozarks, we floated down a river stream amidst rocks and boulders. The following day we touched base at one of America's coldest rivers (supposedly) "Alley Spring." My feet went numb after about 20 seconds of standing in 50 degree F water. But when you are riding your bike in over 100 degree temperatures, you try to ignore the freezing cold. We held our breaths and dipped heads into the cold. Next day, we discoverd a river flowing along a cliff. The river was wide and the water deep. How deep? Not sure, but deep enough for us to take a short hike to the top of the cliff and jump down 30 feet into the water below, without ever touching ground. I am not usually a thrill-seeker of this sort. Free falling from anything above 10 feet (without a rope) is scary. But somehow this jump was essential and peer pressure from my companions encouraged me to suck it up. Standing on top of the cliff, I took a deep breath, counted to three and stepped forward into nothing. Within a second or so I was down in the water, feeling high on adrenaline and shaky in my core. It was an amazing feeling.