Day 32: Chillicothe to Kirksville

Today’s Highlights:
It was another ideal day for cycling. Missouri has been wonderful so far. Perfect weather, no wind, peaceful country roads in very good condition, and lush green scenery.

Our morning started comfortably cool with low-lying fog. We cycled back through the town of Chillicothe, and then escaped among farms after a few miles. The morning fog created a soft glow across the fields. It quickly lifted though, and we had another beautiful calm sunny day for our eighty one mile ride. Again for an entire day, we cycled through lush green farm and pasture land, with rolling hills in all directions. It is amazing to see this type of landscape for hundreds of miles, and that its inhabitants are such good caretakers of the natural resource. Farms and ranches are very well tended. There are more trees now, and more variety too. I have seen sycamore, maple and lots of oak. Near the end of the ride there was an expansive oak forest. We crossed over several rivers. They all are rather small, slow moving, and muddy. However, near most there was a road sign that warned of impassable roads during high water. That’s surprising since right now those rivers are far below the road level. Some high cut riverbanks indicate the potential. I occasionally saw a Great Blue Heron at some rivers, and more commonly the swallows. There are many more birds here compared to our first entry onto the plains. Red winged blackbirds chase us down the road if we happen to be passing a nesting site. Vultures are overhead in midday. Birds are heard all along the way since it is so quite out here. It is very seldom that a car or farm truck passes by. I have not seen much wildlife except for the typical farm animals, but I did get to see two deer near the end of the ride.

We only passed through a few towns today, and like yesterday each had 200 people or less. Linneus and Purdin were among them. Our destination, Kirksville, has a population around 17,000.

Pictures Of The Day:

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Statistics:
Zoom and pan the map to explore the route. Click the name or ‘View Detail’ to view more information at Garmin Connect.