June 6, 2003 There were no mechanicals today, but the Team is in a bit of hurt. You will learn more below, but LaValle is still having calf problems, and Ron has a bit of a bad knee. The route today was to take us from Jefferson City to Marshall, MO - about 90 miles. We were originally going to take some more of the KATY Trail, but we woke up to rain, and felt the trai would be too messy. We had a good route out of town - unlike the freeway setting of getting into town, and we were moving along nicely in the rain. We had wound around a bit to get on the road that would lead out of town, and when we reached it, we immediately came upon a set of railroad tracks. They were angled across the road, so as we approached, I moved the bike as far left as the traffic would allow, so that we could cross the tracks at a right angle. I apparently misjudged the angle, and when we hit the tracks, the front wheel washed out to the left, and we went down very quickly. Fortunately, we were not going very fast, and the road was slick from the rain. We took a hit, but it wasn't bad. Ron took abrasions on the knee and elbow, and LaValle hit her head. The trailer kept the bike up and away from LaValle, so she didn't have any road rash problems. We picked ourselves up, and got on our way. Fortunately, there was nothing wrong with the bike. It continued raining for a couple of hours, but finally quit, and we were able to get into shorts and jerseys. The rollers kept coming at us, but we seemed to be handling them. We saw lots of turtles on the road (We stopped so that LaValle could take a picture of one, and move it off the road), and we were going through some really nice farm country. The green was so green that it dominated everything. About 10 miles out of Boonville, an intermediate town on the way to Marshall, Ron started having problems with his knee. It got worse as the climbing continued. When we reached Boonville, we stoped at a convenience store to water up. We had a discussion, and decided that we would SAG to Marshall if we could find a ride. Ron was afraid that he would hurt the knee if he kept riding - not a good long term thing to do. So, LaValle went to work on finding a ride. We identified a young lady at the gas pump who looked like she might be a good one to approach. As she passed us to pay for her gas, she was hardly civil - we decided to pass. LaValle had this idea of using a U-Haul Truck, and went into the store to see if she could find an agent in the phone book. At she was about to enter, this good ol' boy came out, and LaValle ask him if he was from around here? He said yes, and then she asked if that pickup truck was his? Long story short, he agreed to take us to Marshall - 33 miles away. He has no teeth, has a heavy accent and smokes, so our trip was interesting, but he was great to us. When we can, we will put of the picture of Billy Hall putting a bear hug on LaValle with his vintage pickup in the background. It was quite a sight. LaValle did a super job of getting us taken care of. Ron called his daughter upon arriving in Marshall, and she was pretty insistent that they come and pick us up. We declined, saying that we wanted to give ourselves a night to see if we could still ride. Ron