Tour of Springfield, MO

Okay, now that I posted my pictures, I'm ready to embrace this blog thing!! Instead of taking up all of Sara's comment section with one of my stories!
That's Sara Best's blog, The First 100miles. She's a great writer!!

Today, I started riding out of my driveway on a city tour. I haven't done this all summer, because I've been doing rides strickly to get miles in. All round Springfield, and the great ride I did in Joplin MO, The Tornado Alley 110; which is excellent, and my friend and I are marking our calenders for next year. See why I needed to post here?? I keep going off on tangents.

Our City and Parks department have done a pretty good job of coming up with a map of the bicycle routes thru the city. Now, there are problems, when you reach the "end" and have to get to the point where it starts again, but all in all, I'm pretty proud of them.

We were the Stage 2 finish City for the GREAT Tour of Missouri!!

So, armed with some money, my map, my camera, and a Clif bar, I rode off on this beautiful Saturday afternoon, to go all the way across the city.
Plus, I've ridden around enough, I knew how I was going north, through older neighborhoods, thru the MSU campus and on to downtown, then north to what was early in our history, North Springfield. We had a North and a South. I can't remember when it was joined, but I was headed to history, the part of the city from the 1850's onward.

I love riding through neighborhoods that are not part of my area. Looking at the houses, and finding actual historical sites is pretty cool. This is NOT the part of the city that seems to sprouted in the eighties and the nineties, where all the money has moved. This is part of the city that are restoring buildings, developing lofts in the urban type areas; and you can get a house for a song, if you are willing to fix it up...some of these houses are from the late 1800's. So cool!

It took me 5 hours to ride 33 miles! I stopped and took some pictures, doubled back on some of my turns, and had the young woman who I bought jazzy bottled water from, shaking her head at my idea of a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

It's about 17miles across our fair city, to the Fairgrounds, north of I-44 from my house, south of James River freeway.

I took a picture of a house that was for sale, and the guy that patiently waited for me, before backing out of the driveway, was one of the former occupants. His grandparents had own the house, and he was raised in it. He was in his late sixies, maybe.... He thought it was neat that I was all excited about this old house.

So, as I came back south, the Clif bar was not holding me, so I thought I'd stop at one of the neat little restaurants/pubs that have opened in our downtown area. I found The Blue Plate, on Patton alley, the menu looked good in the window, so I went in. I'm all kitted out, and explain that I didn't expect to stop anywhere and I didn't bring my lock for my bike. As the the only customer there, they said,"bring it in here!" And anyone that knows me will know I took them up on it. I had this great salad, with a serving of Chicken salad on top. Man, it was wonderful! And I bought a brownie to bring home with me.

Okay, I've had a wonderful experience riding around our city. But it's time to head home.

On the way home, I ran into a guy from work, riding one of our greenways trails that snake through that part of the city. I should've taken his picture!! I had my camera around my neck, under my jersey. He didn't recongnize me, dressed up as a cyclist!!

Okay, now I'm coming to the point of why I decided to share this experience. I'm taking routes back that weave thru the area, and keep me off the busier streets. But I finally have to get on National Ave, and ride across the freeway, to ride home. I no sooner get across, that boundary, and I start getting grief from motorists. As I hold up traffic that has to get where they are going NOW, one guy pulls into a parking lot for a Japanese restaurant, and yells" Don't you know what sidewalks are for?" Yes, I do, but he doesn't. He had sped around me using how much gas(?) to pull in front of me to get in the parking lot, he's now screaming at me from. Taking his family out to dinner, I guess. Then I get another guy with attitude, calling me "something, something. bitch" as they have to pass me! My God, I've been riding in neighborhoods all afternoon, that some people lock their car doors to go thru, and now that I'm back in my own neighborhood., I start getting hassled. The drivers like to come up behind you, then speed up to go around, because I'm slowing them down...how much fossil fuel was burned just because I was annoying drivers in the "nicer part of town"....SHIT. My place is modest (to say the least!) and I've lived here for 20 yrs. I'm not moving. But I think I need to visit other parts of our city more often.