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 woke up this morning in Cascade after a decent night's sleep under the pavilion. It did not rain like was thought, but this way we could keep off our rain fly to stay cooler. We packed up and headed for a good breakfast. Grandma's Kitchen was recommended by the locals. After eating up, we headed out of town only to be greeted by our first hill of the day. However, this hill was much smaller than what we had seen yesterday.

The posts for Days 2 through 4 have been updatd with our gps track. Go check it out if you interested in seeing where we have been.

? If the miss. river flows down hill, why don't you just pick the roads that run along the river and go down hill and coast to the coast.

Just an idea.

Well folks, it's me again. Our group crossed back over the Mississippi River today and are back in Illinois. They did 41 miles today into the wind. Wind is always a challenge. Lets hope they start getting it from behind to help them along. They are between Keithburg and Oquawka, IL and camping out in Big River State Forest. It is a good thing too that they chose a site near a shelter because they got stormed on. They're all ok.

I am told there isn't any place near there to go to eat so it is a good thing Chris has been carrying the fixings for chili. That is supper tonight and I hope they all have enough snacks to get them through tomorrow morning till they can get to a restaurant for breakfast.