August 21st / Day 10 Devil's Elbow, MO to Springfield, MO - 99.3 miles

Hi Y'all, found a better way of keeping you updated with my journey across the United States by using Blogger. The writing and photography is a bit ropey at the moment as I'm new to both Blogging and Canon digital cameras so please bear with me.

Finally made some proper progress today after being held out in Rolla and Devil's Elbow, Missouri waiting for the thunderstorms to pass. The storms broke the back of the hot weather though, max temperatures are back in the low 90s which makes for easier cycling, plus the time I had off the road gave me a chance to score a digital camera and made me realise my love of root beer.

We had some heavy rainfall overnight, so much in fact that there's been some land slides and flooding. A landslide took out a section of Route 66.




I took this shot of 66 whilst cycling along the shoulder of the Interstate, the only road west out of the area. I don't like cycling on the Interstates but it can save time and mileage on massive detours.

This part of Missouri has been a lot nicer than St. Louis County, the landscape is nicer and the driving is better. There's some strange roadkill out here though, the highways are littered with Armadillo carcases. I'd have taken pictures but the smell is unbearable.





There's some beautiful countryside in West Missouri, including the Mark Twain National Forest. There's also very strange little towns and signs of borderline poverty. It's very different from Illinois which was flat and Agricultural, pretty little towns and nice housing. It's very 'country' down here, thick accents and every car is a pickup truck with a tool chest in the back. Heard a quote on CNN last night, "Real America lies off the Interstate" I guess the people round here are who the Republicans target. There's Stars n' Stripes flags outside most houses (even the really run-down ones) and it's well over a month since the 4th of July. True patriots. Only seen one exception so far:-




I mostly get overtaken by people driving these:-




A lot of people live in these things, I'm not sure what they are called, Cabins maybe? This is a brand new one parked on a Cabin dealership on the side of Interstate 44.