TheSouth2011

Day 1

Friday, 27 May 2011
St. Louis, MO to Chester, IL
81.1 miles, 6h35m, 12.3 mph
Elapsed Time: 8h31m, Max speed: 35.7mph
Total Climbing: 4240ft, Max elevation: 675ft
Total mileage: 81.1

Day One was supposed to be about 70 miles. Through bungling I managed to extend it to 80.

After stuffing myself with breakfast at the hotel buffet, I waddled out the front of the hotel and on to my bike. It did not collapse. I cruised down to the Gateway Arch where Linda was waiting to take the official start photo.

And so I cross paths with last year's ride.

Next, I rode over to the Eads Bridge for my eleventh crossing of the Mississippi River by bicycle. About halfway across I met a couple of German guys who were touring America and living out of the giant backpacks they were carrying. I took their pictures using their film cameras and they took mine using my digital camera.

I smiled so the Germans wouldn't think I was less friendly than a German.

Across the Eads Bridge, down a ramp, and down an elevator to the street. I rode over to a little park that had a ramp you could climb to get a good view of the Arch. I rode up, but not all the way up, because there was a sketchy looking guy up on the top level. He might have been sketching.

The view from most of the way up the ramp thing.

I backtracked a little bit to a bike path...at least Google said there was a bike path.

But these signs said otherwise.

So, I had to ride through East St. Louis. Fortunately, it was early in the morning, and the area I had to ride through had been destroyed by highway construction and general decay.

Bustling East St. Louis on a Friday morning.

It actually took me quite a while to work my way through ESL and get to the city of Cahokia. Then I got myself turned around and rode around a residential neighborhood for a while until I unexpectedly came out right where I wanted to be. Eventually I got out myself pointed in the right direction and reached the place where I would have gotten off the forbidden trail.

It was not forbidden after all. It really was a bike path.

I try to stop at the various historic sites that I stumble across along he way. Here's a token photo to represent all
of them. It's an example of Creole architecture--so said the sign.

I stopped at what appeared to be the last chance gas station before I entered infinite rural farm country. I noticed that my back wheel had a little lump in it. Remembering what happened in 2004 (the tire exploded and I had to duct tape it together) I decided to take out the tube and look for a twist. So I took off the back wheel, pried off the tire, looked at the tube. Everything looked okay. Put the tube back in, pried the tire back on the wheel, pumped up the tire--nothing happened. Pried off the tire. Tube was pinched. Fail.

So, I pulled out my first spare tube. Jam it in there. Pump it up. Nothing. Pull it out. I tore it up pretty good somehow.

Last tube. Very careful. It works. Call Linda. She'll buy more tubes and meet me later. The pump I have is awesome, but you have to be really, really careful with it. So I've learned.

Finally, off into farm country.

In Illinois they explicitly tell the cyclists to share the road--not the drivers.

The rest of the day was much like last year's last couple days. Cruising down the road along the edge of the bluff. The wind moved around and became a stiff headwind--now that's what I'm used to.

There's a bridge in a little town called Chalfins Bridge. The bridge is closed. Infrastructure decay.

For several miles the road ran along a wildlife refuge. The water reached nearly to the edge of the road.
I startled about a hundred huge frogs into jumping off the road into the water.

Linda caught up with me on the way to the Fort DeChartres State Historic Site. Turns out the flood waters have not receded everywhere yet.

What do you do when you encounter standing water on the road?

I'm not sure this is the right answer. But it was too inconvenient to go around.

Fort DeChartres was apparently a very important place a very long time ago.
Now it's a place that hard to take a good picture of.

From there I rode to the town of Prairie Du Rocher, where I bought a sandwich at the general store and ate it sitting on the tailgate of the Durango.

This is the Modoc Rocks. People have always used this overhang for shelter. Judging by what I saw,
people still use these overhangs for storing hay and rusty farm equipment.

At one point I was attacked by a big, nasty dog. I emptied my pepper spray at him,
but it had no effect. I was able to outrun him. None of that has anything to
do with this photo.

This train tried to pass me down the homestretch, but he couldn't make it stick. The engineer waved and blew his horn
when he passed me, but he had to stop because there was another train on the same rails facing the other
direction. I passed him back, and didn't stick around to see how it would turn out.

They don't build prisons like this anymore.

The Chester Bridge. Tomorrow morning I will cross this back into Missouri.

It was a steep climb up into Chester and to the Best Western on the other side of town. Chester, by the way, is the hometown of the guy who created Popeye. There are statues of Popeye characters all over town, and I think there's a Popeye Museum. I will be seeing very little of that.

Next