day 14: st. genevieve to st. louis, missouri 85 miles

hills!  lot's of hills.  long, steep hills.

but i'll get to that in a moment.

it dawned on me that all the while i've been talking about where i stay and what and where i eat, i never took pictures of any of those places.  so below are examples of our evening stays and our morning breakfasts.  actually, of all the places we've stayed at, the microtel was actually pretty good.  as for the huddle house, hey, it's pancakes and eggs.  not a lot you can do to screw that up.

another night on the highway

it's cheap, but it's good fuel for a day's worth of cycling

i've also mentioned sag stops.  by the way, "sag"  stands for "support and gear."  the shot below is an example of one of our stops.  nothing fancy.  just sliced oranges or watermelon, bananas, granola bars, trail mix, and fresh, cold water.  gatorade mix optional.

mid-morning fuel replenishment

okay, back to those hills.  yesterday was a tough day with over 4000 feet of total climbs.  even though it was only 70+ miles, it was a bear.  so today's 85 miles, with the heat and the hills, weren't something any of us were looking forward to.

the day started off as a series of long, slow climbs.  no one realized how humid it was until we stopped for this great sign at one of our turnings.  once we stopped pedaling, the sweat just started pouring off us all.  and what amazed me was rollie starting to sing the chorus to the ac/dc song, "highway to hell" as i pointed out the sign to him.  remember, rollie is a corn-fed, died-in-the-wool 65 year-old, straight arrow, ex-military iowan.  no way i would have taken him for a rocker.  but there he was, singing away.  just goes to show you can't be too quick judging character.

for all you ac/dc fans, i'm on a highway to zell 

but of all the climbs today, the killer climb of the day came around mile 51.  take a look at the shot of today's route map.  that's a 1.5-mile, 10%-12% climb.  it seemed to go on forever.  in total, we had over 5300 feet of climbs today.

a lot of short, steep climbs, but that 1.5-mile climb at mile 51 was the killer of the day

and, the best part (yes, there was a best part!) was about a third of the way up the hill.  i truly wasn't sure i was going to make it all the way up, that's how steep and long it was.  but about half a mile up the climb, there was a sign on the right side of the road, on the lawn of a house with the names of, i'm guessing, the occupants of the house.  i'm not sure if that's what the sign was for, but i distinctly read the second line on the sign, "jess and samantha hall."  reading those words, and seeing that as a different kind of sign, that being the names of my three kids, jesse, samantha and halle, gave me the inspiration to get up the last mile of the hill.  yes, i was thinking about my kids all the while i was huffing and puffing my way up that sucker.  and, no, i didn't stop to take a picture (as halle asked me earlier this evening).

after that, the rest of the ride was a breeze.  about 15 miles from the end, we rode out of the remnants of rural missouri and into suburban st. louis.  if the houses and strip malls didn't give it away, the smells did.  instead of the smells from farms, we began smelling honeysuckle and lilies.

about nine miles from the finish, we reached the crest of a hill in crystal city and saw the famous st. louis arch and the rest of the downtown skyline in the distance.  three miles from the end, we passed by the anheuser-busch brewery.

another rest day couldn't come soon enough.  the past three days of climbing and the heat really has taken it out of me, so i'm looking forward to recharging my batteries.