Some Say a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

So here are a 15,000 and change.

A group shot outside the Popeye Museum in Chester, IL.  I'll tell you what, I've never seen so much Popeye paraphernalia.

A common sight outside the local libraries of America.  Except, there's usually a trailer behind the black bike.

A bit of NYC in Missouri.  Preparation, pass it on.

Grace, Ash, and me at the Rodeo in Marshfield, MO.  My first Rodeo, I wasn't quite sure how to act.  I think I enjoyed the barrel racing and the bull riding most.  For real, we saw a guy get kicked in the face by a bull and spin upside down.  We're talking like a whole 360 and to the floor kick in the face.  Crazy awesome.  He wasn't the rider, but the guy who protects the rider once the rider falls off.  That is, when the rider falls off, this guy, kick in the face guy, steps in to take the kick so the rider doesn't.  Insane.

6:00 am is too early for some... Nah, she was fine.  The rides were super fast since my trailer was in that open trunk there.  Sadly though, Grace and Ashley are riding back to Tulsa as I type, which means the trailer (the weight) is back on.

The joy of having friends to ride with include conversation as well as someone else to take pictures.  Sometimes they turn out great.  Sometimes... well, enough said.  See the Gatorade in my water bottle cage?  Yeah, that's new thanks to Grace and Ash.

Grace and I finishing up this morning.  Got into Kansas just before noon and it's been both flat and not heavily trafficked.  I've really enjoyed it thus far.  Let's see how long that lasts...

From time to time we would drive to a restaurant off route, or perhaps a camping store for more JetBoil fuel.  With tubs of food, my trailer, and other spontaneous gear in the back seat it meant we went three wide in the front.

Cooky's was the home of the 30 different pies.  Sadly, when we arrived last night it had closed down for the evening.  Thankfully however, it opened the next morning at 6 am and was able to whip up some fresh Dutch Blueberry pie.  One word: Wowthattastedsodamngood.

This is Samson.  While Ash and I rode the morning session together, Grace drove ahead to take some pictures and found this guy.  Basically kidnapping him from where ever he was headed, Grace named him and after some time decided to put him in my front bag.  I actually think he liked it because once I started riding, he kept his head out of the bag much like a dog does.  Then we let him go in a river we decided to swim in.

A shot taken from the banks of the Sac River outside Ash Grove, MO.  Here we swam, freed our friend Samson, the turtle, and basked in the hot sun.  Fear not, no sunburn.

Doing some bicycle repairs outside a local gas station.  I've come to find that gas stations like these serve some of the biggest, yet cheapest, sandwiches I've ever had.  Mmm.

The past couple days with Grace and Ash have been so wonderful.  Here's a picture of us last night preparing to cook pizza on the JetBoil.  A couple of summers ago Grace did a NOLS program down in Baja, Mexico where she learned how to cook fancy foods on camping stoves.  The night before we had some tasty fajitas, and had planned to have peace cobbler after the pizza but ran out of fuel... too much good cookin' I guess.  Oops.

Ash being super camera savvy.

More super savvy pictures from Ash.