TransBallard: Day 36

21 June 2012 Marshfield to Ash Grove MO 49 miles (TransAm 1,524) Rather than fall hopelessly behind on the blog, as I am on the brink of doing, I’ve devised a method for catching up. It’s called Haiku. Three short lines, seventeen syllables in all: five, seven, five. Brilliant. And a re-usable strategy, for, like …

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TransBallard: Day 35

20 June 2012 Houston to Marshfield MO 65 miles (TransAm 1,475) What are the odds this lady is downloading the Quitter app? Another day in Missouri, another cafe with indoor smoking. But this photo does not depict the highlight of the day. There was much better indoor scenery to be had in Springfield, where, after …

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TransBallard: Day 34

19 June 2012 Eminence to Houston MO 46 miles (TransAm 1,410) Gina keeps telling me how much the Ozarks look like Australia. On the surface that statement sounds like it might be an indication that all of the hours and days and weeks of pedaling under the blistering sun are finally going to her head. …

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TransBallard: Day 33

18 June 2012 Eminence MO 0 miles (TransAm 1,363) Well, if you can’t beat em, join em. Despite having gone to college in the Rocky Mountain state, this is the first time ever that Gina has cracked open a can of Coors Light. She doesn’t exactly look the river rat part though, what with her …

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TransBallard: Day 32

17 June 2012 Lesterville to Eminence 53 miles (TransAm 1,363) Today the things that southern Missouri showed Gina can be categorized into three buckets: pretty, pretty cool, and maybe not so pretty as the other pretty things. All being said in the knowledge that beauty is forever in the eye of the beholder. We’ll start …

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TransBallard: Day 31

16 June 2012 Farmington to Lesterville MO 44 miles (TransAm 1,310) I am drinking a beer while writing this blog because it seems to be the fitting thing to do. It’s not a canned beer, which would have been most apropos. But now that I’m no longer twenty-something and poor, I don’t buy beer in …

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TransBallard: Day 30

15 June 2012 Chester IL to Farmington MO 47 miles (TransAm 1,266) I’m still Googling fun facts about Illinois and posting more Popeye photos when I realize Gina has already crossed into the fourth state on this TransAm trip: Missouri. The Show Me State. Show me what? I wonder. Gina might be thinking “Show me …

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