Goodbye TransAmerica ...

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Ste. Genevieve, MO to Waltonville, IL (with a detour to Chester, Il)
Total Miles: 85.8

We started today with the much awaited milestone of crossing the Mississippi. We took this tiny ferry - a farmer across the river used the ferry for years to take his equipment across, then he realized he could make some money transporting cars and people, and so we got our ride. We rode the twenty some miles south to join back up with the Transamerica Route in Chester, IL, all the while discussing the pros and cons of leaving the TransAm route and detouring to New Jersey. After hours of deliberation and route planning, we decided to head back north to meet up with the Race Across America bike route (see www.raceacrossamerica.org and navigate to their routes/time trials page if you’re interested in our new route - we’ll be meeting up with this route in Effingham, Il). The riders should be passing us in a few days (they’re sick - the ride 22 hours a day and most complete the cross country trek in 9 days - the website is definitely worth a look) - we thought it would be pretty neat to see them wiz by. We’ll be finishing our trip in Atlantic City, NJ - if we can hold a good pace (this might be a stretch considering the recent morale and opinions regarding bike riding) of a little over 80 miles a day, we might be able to finish by Sunday, June 26th. We’re really excited to be able to finish in Jersey - the trip has a whole different feel to it now.

The afternoon was spent navigating busy roads to try to get ourselves as north as possible (go figure, today’s wind is blowing from the north at about 15 mph, we just can’t seem to catch a break). Looks like those days of riding into the south wind were useless now that we’re backtracking and heading north. We sure miss those adventure cycling maps - it seems when you don’t have your route planned out precisely, everybody you talk to has some sort of route suggestion or somewhere you just HAVE to ride by. We had a riding companion for a few miles today - a 1 yr old lab that we kept thinking we could out ride. We finally found someone to hold him as we made our escape - hopefully he found his way back home alright (I’m glad Arthur didn’t rally on him with the pepper spray as he claims he’ll do to every dog that merely looks at us funny - it was a necessity in Missouri but now that we’re in Illinois the dogs seem to have good homes and less of a desire to nip at our heels).

We made it to Waltonville just in time to see the end of a local softball game and talk to the locals. These were quite possibly some of the nicest people we’ve met. Everyone was interested in our travels, they all tried to make us feel as comfortable as possible in their park, our bed for the night. We were even given Snickers Bars and Gatorades for the road ahead. Thanks so much!

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