Talk about a day not going as expected--my short ride turned into a miniscule one that barely moved my start point for tomorrow.

But first the good times:

We found a great bike shop not far from our hotel where Chuck relieved the annoying and persistent squeak I have had for the last week.  He also had a replacement for my lost phone mount and, best of all, Cathy found some new shoes that fit her perfectly and worked with her existing cleats and pedals.

After spending more time than planned with essential errands, I got on the road in the afternoon for what was supposed to be about 40 miles.  The beginning of the ride took me to the Mastodon State Historic Site in Imperial, MO.  Their website is https://mostateparks.com/park/mastodon-state-historic-site

In addition to an excellent selection of artifacts, they provide easily understood information about the importance of this site to the understanding of prehistoric people of the area.  What is also quite interesting is the story of the first discovery of the bones and how they were completely misunderstood while being exhibited as the skeleton of a new and unusual creature.  I took just a few pictures.  The giant sloth and mastodon skeleton are reproductions--the tooth is an actual fragment of a mastodon.

 

After Cathy and I spent an enjoyable 3/4 of an hour here, I got back on the road.  Scarcely six miles into the ride I had a flat tire.  I stopped to replace the tube and as I was remounting the wheel, the tire blew.  I thought I had thoroughly inspected the tire to find why the tube had blown but I obviously missed something.  Fortunately, Cathy had not gone that far off the road.  I called her and she came back and picked me up.  We took the bike back to Olde Towne Fenton Cyclery where they replaced my tire and made a couple of adjustments to some work they had done previously.

 

By this time, it was late enough in the day to make trying to get in any miles unrealistic.

 

Tomorrow I leave Missouri for good.  We will cross over to Illinois again and in two days, we will reach Kentucky.