We had a great nights sleep. The Drury Inn was probably the best hotel we have been at yet. They gave us snacks before bed, drinks, a great breakfast, and a nice pool.......and it was one of the cheapest! Katie didn't want to leave. She packed up her stuff and disappeared under the blankets.

We stopped at the Imperial Famers Market. Laura loved the smell. Chuck got some berries, I got some cherries. Laura got a bunch of blueberries, which seemed to match her shirt.

Grafton, Il to Granite City, Il

We had a descent breakfast at the Ruebel hotel in Grafton, after a good nights sleep (no ghost's bothered us).

We rode the Van somethingergin trail east from Grafton.

We woke up and unloaded our bikes from the Ice House Inn, loaded our camelbacks with ice and hit the road. Katie stopped at the post office to mail her 2nd post card to her grandparents.

Breakfast at the Barry cafe was decent; sadly we are already too far south to expect real cheese on an omelet. Laura didn't finish her huge pancakes.

Day 11. Rest day in Barry Il.

We decided it was time to have a rest day. We all needed it.

Taters quote of the day: "It should be considered child abuse to make kids go camping."

The Ice House Inn has no windows (former ice house), so it I don't wake up naturally. No sounds from the outdoors, no light. Katies cell phone alarm woke us up at 8am to head to breakfast.....it startled me. I rarely sleep later than the birds, usually I am up with the sun.

We had a decent breakfast at super 8, after sleeping in until almost 8.

We were considering a short 25 mile day to Hannible Missouri.... as a semi-rest day. After finally getting out of Quincy after a several mile disruption (my fault, the hotel I called was not on the route like I thought) we rode through Marblehead Il.

We stopped at Lock & Dam #21? Katie had seen several of them from a distance over the last few days and wanted to see one in action. We had a great view of a barge passing through. Today's cooler weather also seems to have stopped the mayflies.

Each posting takes me an hour or more, and costs me sleep. Please check the old posts for when I finally get around to adding pictures. Also, don't expect too many posts from the girls. They take their sleep when they can get it.

Let me know if our mileage log gets off. I am doing this in my head as I drift asleep.

Today was our rest day. I pushed the team hard yesterday and promised them a rest day today. We wanted to see some sites in Nauvoo, and maybe ride 12-15 miles to the next town for the night.

Our tents got soaked last night. We dried them out the best we could and packed them up. I forgot to close my tent door the evening before during dinner, so it was the worst and needed to be open up this evening in the hotel.

We woke up and had a great tail wind which led us 10 miles till breakfast in Oquawka. Some club riders passed us, they had left an hour early for a century ride which was partially on our route. We couldn't keep up with them. I had to do 24mph to pass them, but couldn't maintain it.

We awoke today well rested, ready for the hills to be behind us. Our route was clear, planned out, and we were ready to finally put up some big numbers. Chuck and I filled our Camelbacks from the ice machine and the group hit the road.

Before leaving Muscatine, we stopped at a really neat store called Harpers Cyclery. Harpers had all of the items we needed. Roger and I needed some socks, Laura needed a water bottle cage, and we had yet to replace the backup tube that I blew on the crack a few days ago.

We all had awesome french toast at the Corner Cafe in Lowden IA. Well, Roger had to be different and had pancakes. The normal server and cook were late so some random person appeared to be serving us. It was an older gentleman who did a great job running the entire place on his own. Chuck finally was able to find a wifi network for his laptop, but only if Katie put her OJ in the right place on the table.

We awoke at 6am, extra early to get an early jump on the heat.