Pictures and GPS data to be added later, sorry.
54 miles (887 total)

We left our Charleston EconoLodge after a 6 am breakfast. We are getting hotel breakfast as early as possible, but the days are warming up faster and faster. We might have to start skipping hotel breakfast so we can hit the road even earlier in the day. I am getting sick of it anyway.

I still can't believe that the Comfort Inn in town wouldn't let us put our bikes indoors. We are boycotting them the entire trip. So far Drury motels seem to be the most biker friendly.

We stopped at a gas station in _____ for a quick snack. I just can't eat a big breakfast at 6am and am hungry soon after. By 8 am I am ready for lunch.

Ice cream at 8:30 am is awesome!

Today we had to decide between staying on the Missouri side, or crossing over to Illinois.

"I am not sure if it is the right decision, but I decided to stay. Katie was a bit bummed, she wanted another boat ride." - Chris

We started off with breakfast at the hotel. Afterward we stopped at a gas station hoping to find a map of the area, so we could find a way around the crazy hills and busy roads. Had no luck. So we had to take the busy road. We couldn't really figure out how that could be a national bike route. On the positive side, we had a decent shoulder.

We ate our Super 8 breakfast around 6:30, it was pretty good.

We left around 8. That is the problem with hotel breakfasts, you can't eat very early.

We put in a quick 20 miles, trying to beat the heat. We stopped at a local dairy, but it was not open. A nice man told us we could take a rest at his place 6 miles ahead, but we never saw him. Bummer, we all imagined that he had the best lemonade waiting for us.

Chuck said we climbed at 3-6% for several miles straight. I kept checking to see if my tires were flat. I noticed afterwards that a 1-2% grade felt flat.

Sorry about the downtime.

The AC adapter for our router died. Some great IT work by Laura and Dee got it working.

I will try to catch up on posts. I might just do text for tonight, and add photos later.

Thank you for your patience.

We woke up at our regular time, but we were really dragging. The hills yesterday were still being battled in our legs. I also had a drum thumping deep in my skull, so talking me into a rest day was fairly easy for taters. I finished packing (last one) and noticed everyone was trying to sneak a bit more sleep. As a team we considered a rest day, however being the last day of cool weather meant we wanted to at least make some progress. We decided to make it a short day.

I realized today that the road construction made us miss another attraction. We were unable to go to the local tiger sanctuary. Dang. Laura and Taters would have liked that.

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.

Hi to everyone. I am having a great time. It is as much fun as I had hoped for. We have seen a lot of sights, and met a lot of very nice people. It seems whenever some hears what we are doing, they bend over backwards to help us.

If the second half of the trip is as much fun, it will be a great trip.

I woke up last night about 12:30 with Katie kicking my bike hard off her bed. She can't even take one square inch of something touching her precious bed space. (We had no option, but to put our bike in the room with us. This was a small place.) After a few more times of kicking and things flying everywhere, it was time to get up. We had breakfast at a Waffle House, packed up, and then we were off.

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.