Day 22: Farmington, IL

houston, the duck has docked over. the foothills of the ozarks took a bite of this winged creature yesterday as did the atmospheric elements. waking up yesterday, after spending a delicious evening with the gurus from bicycle adventures club, I have found refuge here in farmington, mo after crossing the mighty mississip. the steamy conditions that are predicted to worsen did not treat wounded duck kindly. after many hours of both consideration and deliberation with myself and the houston hotline, a decision has been reached to roll with contingency plan bravo. due to elements out of my control, and those within, the decision has been made to fast forward to kansas utilizing means other than self-propulsion. The weight of this deviation from plan alpha has not come lightly; however, to continue on with the therapeutic spirit of RR2 "from barstool to bike saddle" while keeping my bod in the green zone, initiating plan bravo has been authorized and will be implemented at 0900 hours tomorrow morning. the plus side will be a slight deviation from the original flight path to visit the apex of another former life-changing adventure and a place i once called home many years ago. this unscheduled sortie will send wounded duck past fort leonard wood, missouri (or better known by those stationed there as "fort lost in the woods, misery") where i entered the u.s. army and underwent basic training (boot camp) and advanced technical training. should be fun, that is if the military police don't throw me in the clink for driving a u-haul onto the post without identification. come to think of it, in the context of homeland security, contingency plan bravo might be a little dicey, so if transmission from duck is lost could someone contact idaho's u.s. representative to come bail me out, over?

standby for yesterday's hard count: mileage: 52
time in cockpit: 4:15
insects that swarmed my sweet scent on every climb: 1 large mass
gallons of water consumed: many

Wounded duck out