Monday, July 06, 2009
21: Meet Me in St. Louis
 |
| Stoker's Log Day Twenty One |
| 7/6/09 |
| From Greenville, IL |
| To Ferguson, MO |
| 70.3 miles |
| 10.8 avg mph |
I started off the day by losing the "school or prison" game, the one where you guess whether a new, fancy building is a school or a prison. You fooled me, Federal Correctional Institution of Greenville. I could have sworn that those search lights were for a football field.
My next discovery of the day was that Gretchen Wilson was born in Pocahontas IL, population 850. I didn't initially recognize the name, but Kyle has long tormented me with her hit "Redneck Woman." (I hate most country music, except for Taylor Swift who somehow manages to be too cute to hate). In any case, you can tell that he was very excited to ride through Gretchen's hometown.
I was much more excited about Misty's, an icecream shop that we spotted on the map this morning. We had a warm ride getting there, and we could taste the ice cream as soon as the building came into view. Unfortunately, that's the best we would get, because Misty's didn't open until late afternoon. Oh cruel mistress Misty, how you broke our hearts.
Luckily things were about to get better. Our first sign was the bike rack in the middle of nowhere.
We were incredibly confused until we came across a system of bike paths nearby. We tried to follow a map of them and made a wrong turn once or twice, but we didn't really mind. Zipping under trees, through tunnels, across bridges, and occasionally past other cyclists, we thoroughly enjoyed our shaded and traffic-free ride.
The only downside was the absurd amount of dandelion fluff clogging the air and the paths...
...but as it swirled through the air it looked like snow in a children's play so we didn't really mind it either.
We eventually reached and crossed the expansive Mississippi River.
We took the Chain of Rocks Bridge, a spectacular construction with a bend halfway across.
At the state line we came across a jovial tourist group bursting with accents: a Texan was showing the country to friends from Sweden. One of the Swedes was more than happy to take our picture by the bike rack that marked the state line. He complimented the camera and directed us as if we were models at a high energy photo shoot.
From the bridge we could just spot the Arch, but I was more excited by the water intake structures that looked like castles.
The bike paths led us through a nice park, and also past a group of men setting off fireworks in the parking lot. Their ring leader was the third person today who wanted to know exactly how much the bike cost; it seems to be a Missourian obsession.
Missouri gained a lot of points with us for having an extensive bike path network, but promptly lost most of them when the official bike route led us onto busy, multi-lane roads with little or no shoulder. At one point we had no choice but to ride on the sidewalk. We were headed to Ferguson, a suburb of St Louis where our college friend Emily Voss grew up. She wouldn't be there, but her parents had enthusiastically offered to host us. We were relieved to finally escape the traffic and find their neighborhood. After admiring the bike and introducing us to the neighbors, they welcomed us in. It felt amazing to eat and relax in a home rather than a hotel. As we enjoyed a homecooked dinner (and produce like we can never get on the road), we answered questions about the trip and really became reinvigorated. The ride is our reality now and we're immersed in its daily challenges, so we can forget about the enormity of what we're doing; the Vosses were so excited and impressed by the trip that we remembered again and felt inspired.
They rounded out the evening by taking us to the famous Ted Drewes, which serves vanilla frozen custard with every topping and mix-in ingredient imaginable. It more than made up for the closed ice cream store this morning, and we went to bed looking forward to more St Louis tourist activities tomorrow.
| posted at: 10:11 |
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