JUNE 30: Trenton, Mo. to St. Joseph, Mo. 83 miles via Missouri Route 6 and U.S. Route 36. Average speed for today, 12.7 mph. Total trip miles to date, 1,609.

Another delightful day of riding and another milestone: completing our first month on the road. Our average mileage per day to date: 53.6. And that’s with three days lost to mechanical problems and the three we took off to visit my mom near Chicago.

Average on days we actually rode was closer to 66 miles. This bodes well for July, during which we’ll almost certainly have more riding days.

Today was again trouble free for Ben and his new bike. Feel like posting one of those signs like you see in factories: “It has been two days since our last mechanical problem.”

Lunch in Maysville, Mo., which was just days beyond its annual Tractor Parade. The John Deere procession was featured in the local paper, along with numerous police blotter items on loose cattle, kids doing donuts in the high school parking lot, tornado touchdowns and “a tree on fire.”

All this was accompanied by great sandwiches at Tammy’s Café, the most popular place in Maysville.

We ended the day in a motel next to an Interstate exit, two truck stops, a half-dozen fast-food joints, a Pancake House, a Waffle House and absolutely nothing to betray this place’s history.

St. Joe, those who remember their high school history know, was the jumping off point for hundreds of wagon trains heading west and the eastern terminus of the Pony Express. In 1849 alone, historians say, 50,000 westward-bound pioneers and gold seekers passed through this town.

Back then, the wagon trains took about six months to make the trip out to California. We hope to do a little better.

Tomorrow: across the Missouri River and into Kansas.