Day 22 – 29 May – Galena, Illinois to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin
72 miles ridden - 4300 feet climbed - temperature 30C Today was all about climbing and flies. It was a bit cooler today when we left but that was more than compensated for by constant small hills or rollers. We try and get enough speed going down to get us almost to...
Day 21 – 28 May – Moline to Galena
93 miles ridden - 2800 feet climbed - temperature 33C With a long ride and temperatures expected to exceed 100F mid/late afternoon it was an early start - breakfast at 05:00 and load/leave at 06:00. I have to admit that facing food that early wasn't easy, especially...
Day 20 – 27 May – Galesburg to Moline
57 miles ridden - 1000 feet climbed - temperature 30C (more on that later!) Although today was a short day there was significant negotiation last night for an early start time as we knew it was going to be a very hot day. We settled on breakfast at 06:00 and load...
Day 19 – 26 May – Keokuk, Iowa to Galesburg, Illinois
94 miles ridden - 1650 feet climbed - temperature 29C Another fabulous day's cycling although at 5:30 this morning a thunderstorm came through town which woke us all up. While it caused some concern by the time we loaded at 07:00 we had a beautiful day ahead of us....
Day 18 – 25 May – Hannibal to Keokuk, Iowa
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...
Day 17 – 24 May – Louisiana to Hannibal
38 Miles ridden - 2000 feet climbed - temperature 30C The shorter day was very welcome as was a gourmet breakfast in an artisan bakery instead of stale raisin bran and bagels in the hotel lobby. We had a much later start at 9am which didn't really matter on such a...
Day 16 – 23 May – St Louis to Louisiana
108 miles ridden - 2000 feet climbed - temperature 29C The first 46 miles today was on either dedicated bike paths or well-marked bike lanes so we didn't have to concentrate so hard on traffic. We followed a bike path for 11 miles out of St Louis past industrial...
Day 15 – Rest day – St Louis
0 miles ridden - 0 feet climbed - hot and sunny Today has been a fabulous rest day centred around three things - The old courthouse, the Gateway Arch, and a river cruise. The old courthouse is a magnificent building constructed in the 1820s to support the importance...
Day 14 – 21 May – St Genevieve to St Louis
85 miles ridden - 4700 feet climbed - temperature 21C. Today was great cycling but not so good for sightseeing. It was much cooler and overcast until mid-afternoon - we got splattered a couple of times by raindrops and went through occasional puddles but missed the...
Day 13 – 20 May – Cape Girardeau to St. Genevieve
70 miles ridden - 3100 feet climbed - temperature 27C. Today we passed the halfway point - 882 miles. We would have celebrated but we were trying to out-run rain clouds which I am pleased to say we did. The first 40 miles was...