June 24th Imminence, MO

(I'm going to back track because I want to paint you a little picture with words of some of the places we camp at when the hotels are full)
Those early affluent and well kept farms and houses have given way to the more hard scrabble, impovershed, ramshackle ones I imagined when I thought of the Ozarks. We are staying in a campground that is mostly a few fire pits with piles of trash, and smoldering fires everywhere. We did get showers though. 4 min. for 50 cents. We taught each of the boys the art and method of the 8 min., coin operated shower...they were into the challenge of it. There were guys riding around all over the campground on these ATVs with confederate flags on the back. This campsite is the kind of place where you worry about getting hepatitis and wouldn't be surprised to find a used needle in the firepit. From the sound of things there seems to be a shooting range on the premises. You know you are in a quality campground when they draw lines with those fat-tipped, black , permanent markers on the ends of the toilet paper roll in the bathroom, ostensibly to prevent it's theft I guess. Everything is wet when we wake up these days. The dew is incredible. It is like it poured during the night. We just stuff the sleeping bags and tent wet, put on damp clothes and hit the road. Once we are riding everything is fine. We generate our own air conditioning, everything is so beautiful, and all you have to do is pedal and shift gears. We ran out of fuel way back at the beginning of Kansas so haven't been able to make our own food or have tea or coffee in the morning. We usually just have cereal with powdered milk, a banana or some dried fruit..yogurt if we are lucky..bananas if we are really lucky. Everything is soaking wet so Yoga is limited to standing poses. So, we usually stop about 2 hours into our ride and get coffee, eggs, biscuits, pancakes...or something like that...take out our bags and tents and let them dry in the sun while we eat.
Solomon and Yonah like to start the day with a little fight, usually before they even get out of the tent. Yonah is not a morning person and wakes up slowly, whereas Solomon is slower to emerge from his bag (we usually have to pull it out from under him) but when he finally does he is like Tigger, bouncing around nipping at everyone's heels.
We got on the road about 9am due in part to a flat tire on the Burley trailer. It was already hot, blue skies, and hilly like I have never seen before.
Gotta go!
Love,
Djina