State Of Mind:

Maybe not a state of mind but how about the seventh state line. This afternoon we crossed into Illinois. I think that Missouri has been given a bad rap. We had been told about bad Missouri, bad roads, bad drivers, bad, bad bad. I thought that although there were a few spots where the roads were a little rough, but 90+% the roads were great. I found the drivers exceptionally courteous. I don't think there was one driver that was rude or crowded me. Just a guess but I would say that 70% of the truck drivers gave me a wave and 100% of the tractor drivers did. Hopefully Illinois is as good.

Today was cloudy and cool. Just as my luggage was being loaded I thought maybe I should grab my rain clothes but I didn't really want to drag it with me, and besides it wasn't suppose to rain. Ten miles down the road the skies opened up and a deluge ensued. Fortuitously I as 100 feet from a gas station where wonderful Margret was, within 10 minutes there was a dozen cyclist in the gas station. Margaret was busy handing out garbage bags which we all pulled on. Off down the road wearing a garbage bag. At the 30 mile mark was the SAG were the truck was with the luggage. There every one was digging though their luggage and pulling on rain gear. A second deluge ensued but by the 45 mile mark it had cleared off. So I stripped off the rain gear and rode on. I decided to stop for a burrito out of a convenience store for lunch at the 50 mile mark. This left just 23 miles to go. However the big adventure of the day was still in front of me as today we crossed the Mississippi river. Now this is not as big a bridge as the Golden Gate bridge or the bridge across the Columbia at Astoria Oregon, but it is still a huge bridge. It has no shoulder, so you have to take the lane, and just let cars move to the other lane and pass you. Just before I crossed the bridge I caught up with Gil and Toni. Then Frank and Jim came along so the five of us all crossed together. On the far side we had a big celebration.

The other big event of the day is that we crossed the 2000 mile mark on our journey. I guess that it is also kind of a personal mile post as the furthest I had ridden on a trip was 1400 miles.

So here we are in Quincy Illinois. It is very pretty city. As we rode in I was really impressed with the nice downtown (although it does look like it is hurting). We then rode though this neighborhood of incredible stone and brick Victorian mansions. A leaflet in the hotel room says there are 2000 structures in Quincy which are listed on National Register of Historic Structures. Can,t be here take the virtual tour http://www.quincynet.com/housetour/ It is really cool. Boy would I like to live in one of those.

Today's picture is of the bridge across the Mississippi River. To give you some perspective it is about 0.5 miles long.

Well thanks for visiting blog and thanks for your comments.

Singing in the Rain

Terry