Houston, Missouri, to Eminence, Missouri -- 41 miles

We woke at 6 am and began biking at 6:30 am. We thought it might be cooler, but things heated up real quick. In Eunice, we stopped at the post office to fill our water bottles. Adventure Cycling members John from New Jersey and John from New Zealand passed us. A pick-up truck with a horse trailer sprayed us with water from the cab window as it passed by. We heard that there was a big horse riding event and some of these people get real rowdy.

John and John had stopped at a mini-mart for snacks and drinks – they caught up to us again and we all rode to Alley Spring. Alley Spring is a natural spring that pumps more than 80 million gallons of water every day. The clear, turquoise blue water reminded Lenny of the Cenotes we saw in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The air was 10 degrees cooler by the spring, and the water itself must have been about 45 degrees! In the old mill building, 

Lenny chatted at length with Floria Jones, a national park ranger. We had much in common and talked for what must have been over an hour. We saw John and Briar Gregory from New Zealand, who Lenny had met two days earlier – Lorraine had not met them yet. 

At 1:30 pm, we continued biking another 5 miles to Eminence. The terrain was very hilly, and it was getting hot. We checked at 3 different motels, but they all had no vacancy. We decided to eat at a local cafe and the waitress, Annette Nichols, made phone calls to help us find a motel. We stayed at Harvey’s Campground, in a comfortable air-conditioned room.