59 miles ridden – 1000 feet climbed – temperature 27C.

Today was a glorious day’s cycling. Lovely temperature, bit of a tailwind, great mix of urban and rural landscape, all in all it was spot on.

We climbed out of Hannibal and crossed the Mississippi yet again and crossed into Illinois, this time with a proper sign!

The roads were flat, quiet and generally good condition so it was very relaxed riding. Again we rode on seemingly endless stretches of road past derelict barns and even derelict bridges:

Our SAG stop was in the town of Quincy where even a closed road didn’t get in our way – we just walked along the train tracks (we did check for trains first):

But still lots of empty spaces:

And if it gets boring and you feel like a change you can head to Poland and Peru:

although guess what? It’s a long way to both

Riding on roads like this creates good thinking time. It took us about 40 minutes to ride this stretch of straight road during which I explained to someone how to create new routes and download them onto a Garmin and, when no one was within earshot, sang Wish You Were Here out loud, and then thought about whether my new Giro cycling shoes purchased in St Louis were wearing in nicely. They are by the way, and the SH56 SPD cleats do clip in and out better than the SH51s if you’re interested.

It’s not all empty spaces though. The two pictures below were taken from exactly the same spot, one looking left and the other right:

The last mile of the ride as over the Mississippi once again crossing into the state of Iowa and our overnight stay in Keokuk.  Almost underneath the end of the bridge is Lock 19 – 1200 feet long, 110 feet wide, with a drop of 38 feet – which sits with a dam almost 4600 feet long. Everything in America is bigger!

We may only be here for one night but we are in another State:

Tomorrow is a 94 mile day – I must carb load tonight.