day 13: cape girardeau to st. genevieve, missouri 71 miles

it ended as another hot, hard day, but it started out as a great sunday morning ride with an early departure and a cool breeze out of cape girardeau.  

we spent much of the morning riding through the rolling hills of some of the most beautiful croplands and pastures in this part of southeastern missouri.  spectacular views.  along the way, we were surprised to see buffalo and emu on one of the farms.

a beautiful morning in fruitland, mo.  loved this barn; apparently an old style no longer used in this region

junior, did you remember to put the tractor in the shed?

as the day wore on, many of us (me included) starting feeling the effects of the past couple of days of hill climbing.  while dan noted that he thought i was getting stronger as the days progressed, i told him that, today, my legs felt like jelly.  just nothing there.  

climbing up one hill, into the tiny town of pocohontas (yes, named after her -- there was even a statue commemorating the 100th anniversary of her visit to the town), i saw this great pie shop.  unfortunately, being early sunday morning, it was closed for business.  most of the folks in the series of small towns we rode through this morning were in one of the many baptist or lutheran churches that dotted the countryside.  no cars in many of the driveways we passed, but a whole lot of cars in front of the churches.  this is, after all, part of the bible belt.

could have used a nice slice of pie by the time i rode past this place

we were able to take a longer than normal break at the sag stop in brazeau, at the hemman winery (not open on sundays).  i was bummed because i was really curious to see one of the wineries in this state as it has some of the oldest in the country.  i'm told that, before prohibition, missouri had the most acres of vineyards of any state, even surpassing california.  while we are relaxing a bit in town, some of the local boys were just coming back from a morning of fishing.  and they were proudly showing off their haul of catfish.

which wine goes best with gatorade? 

after leaving brazeau, the sag stop and the comfort of a chair on the front porch of the winery, we were back to hill climbing until we descended on the valley floor for about 20 miles.  there, we were greeted with the same strong southwesterly winds we'd been battling the past couple of days.  and today was no different.  i'm not sure which i prefer; the climbing of the hills or dealing with headwinds on the flats.  in the case of the former, at least you can relax a bit during the descents.  with the headwinds on the flats, it's a constant struggle.

around the 51 mile mark, we crossed over the halfway mark for this trip.  unfortunately, the picture i thought i took didn't come out.  it wasn't that elaborate a chalk sign on the road surface.

as we approached st. genevieve, which was settled in the 1700's, we all assumed that this was the french town, established in the wake of marquette, joliet, la salle and all the other french explorers who came down the mississippi.  however, what confused us was the belgian influence in many of the river and town names as we got closer to our final destination for today.  it's a mystery that none of us had the energy to pursue, so even when the question came up again during dinner, no one had a good answer.  something to be resolved at a later date.

tomorrow, another long, hot day.  we'll finish in st. louis and get a much needed day off to recover and repair.