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Published: June 23rd 2017
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A fairly normal start to the day. The temperature was mild early on and the sky overcast but the humidity was very high. The morning was spent going on rolling hills on what appeared to be a fairly busy highway into Jefferson City. We had planned a big day of just over 200km and we reached Jefferson City just before lunch.
There is a I a of the Liberty Bell there as well as a smaller version of the Capitol Building. But perhaps the most impressive tag we saw in Jefferson City was the massive Missouri River. It is a huge body of water about 300 meters across and flows quite quickly. We left Jefferson City via the bridge over the river. Our track notes said not to take the cyclist/pedestrian bridge and to ride on the road. We decided that wasn't very safe and took the cycle bridge. Well the cycle bridge came out on the mud flats on the other side of the river while the road continued above, and we had no way we could see to get back to the road. Next time we follow the track notes. It took a bit of an effort and walking
our bikes across 4 lanes of highway but we eventually got back on track. We spent the afternoon mostly following the Missouri River, our next stop being Washington, Illinois. The ride along the river was quite flat as you might expect for a while and then it turned away from the river - and up the hills. These hills were short but quite steep, getting up to 15%. They sapped the strength from your legs in the high humidity. We did a driver change and I got into the RV. The boys took off and I went and got a drink from a shop and then followed behind all the way to a cross road. I followed our track notes and turned right and about 8 km down the road the road was blocked to all but local traffic and I hadn't passed the boys. Oops, I lost them. No problem, I dialled Dave's phone to find which way they went, and in the back of the RV Dave's phone rang. Bugger, were did they go?I was getting worried at this stage as I had no idea where they were. I back tracked to the junction and looked at our
road atlas and thought there was only one other possible route they could take. Luckily I found them about 15 kms down the road. They had run into more of the steep rolling hills and were in need of a drink. We did the last driver change and road into Washington. We all managed to ride over 150kms today which was a big effort in the humidity and with the hills. We had no luck finding an RV park as we drove around town. We found a big gathering of people. Down on the river, parked the RV and went over to check it out. There Was live music, food and drink to be had. Can't help good luck. We also found a large out of the way car park in which we have parked for the night. Not what we planned, but then again we hadn't planned at all. We've been discussing options for the last part of the ride. Tom wants to be in Washington DC on the 4th of July so we might ride there instead of New York. That's still across the US, just a different destination. We have about 1400kms to ravel and a mountain
range to cross, but we're hoping to get there by the evening of the 3rd of July. For tomorrow we head first to West Alton on the mighty Mississippi and then on to Greenville Illinois.
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