Day Thirty-One - Proper Ozarks.

I began my day with a lethargic start as always. I got all my stuff together, and was ready to go by 8:45, after I had eaten. I went to go and get my included continental breakfast. I was shocked and appalled to find that there was nothing but bread and cereal left. Thinking on my feet, I decided to head over to White Castle, where I used a coupon to eat for about $3.

I got underway, and opted for a sneaky shortcut that bypassed the town of Bismark. I'm not sure how many miles this saved me, but it's got to be in the region of 5-8 miles. Don't get me wrong, I'm not racing to finish, but I didn't think I would gain a huge amount culturally from that extra bit. It was down this bypass that a tortoise met it's match in a similar way to how the dog met it's match back in Virginia. It differed this time though, in that this tortoise started chasing after me yesterday. Everything about that ordeal was awful, you could see it happening in slow motion. A car went to overtake me and ran it over, making a really loud crunch, after which I pretty much had to swerve to dodge flying debris.

After all of this excitement, the rest of my day was fairly ordinary. The scenery made a nice change, it was all woodland for as far as I could see either side of the road. After my relatively flat start, the hills bit back and I spent the rest of my milage going over what is described as the 'self-propelled rollercoaster'.

I arrived in Ellington at around 4pm, with temperatures still above 80 degrees. After eating in a diner over the road, I retired to bed to watch some of the MTV Movie Awards and write this up. I'm going to get an early night tonight, I'm going 70 miles or so to Denver (not the big Denver). It's only 8 miles further than I went today, but by setting out early I can take my time on the bigger hills.