day 15: rest day/laundry, repairs, reflections

you'd think that with a day off, i might actually sleep late.  nah.  woke up at 5:00 again this morning.  i'm programmed now.

spent the morning walking around, doing errands, doing laundry, patching tires and inner tubes and taking a couple of pictures.

passing through the huge anheuser-busch (budweiser) plant as we came in from the south side of the city

i took this last picture once i discovered it's significance.  many of you may be familiar with the famous dred scott decision by the supreme court.  scott, a slave who sued the u.s. for his freedom, was unsuccessful in his efforts.  the supreme court decision, however, wasn't his first attempt at freedom.  having lived in missouri, then a non-slave state, scott sued for his freedom here and was briefly granted it in 1850.  the court house across the street from my hotel room is the very courthouse where that case was heard.

the courthouse where the dred scott case was tried

the famous st. louis arch...the gateway to the west

and it's those upcoming ten straight days on the bike that have me thinking the most.  i'm caught between that sense of "oh god, i still have ten days to go!" and "i wonder what's next?"  i'm tired and i think that sense of weariness is creeping into my overall sense of this ride.  the more i ride, the more i'm amazed at the guys, all older than i am, who've not only done this before, but have done this multiple times, including crossing the country and riding for over 50 days at a stretch.  i can safely predict now that i will not be going on a cross-country ride any time soon.  most likely, never.

the arch from laclede's landing, site of the orignal settlement in 1784

but as tired as i'm feeling, i can also point to many times during this ride when my spirits have been lifted.  when a smile or a wave or a word of encouragement from a total stranger was all i needed to revive and reset my energies.  the sign on the lawn yesterday during that horrendous climb was just one example.

another one happened yesterday as we were heading into st. louis.  dan, rollie and i were riding by ourselves, stopping to smell the honeysuckle or to take pictures as we approached the city.  by 2:00, we were also drained of energy and feeling quite hungry.  so we stopped at a mcdonald's just off the interstate to grab a bite and something cold to drink.

while we were there, we were getting the most curious stares from both the patrons in line as well as the folks behind the counter.  on days into major cities, we all wear our bike america jerseys, so the three of us looked like we were all on the same team.  a couple of people asked who we were and where we had ridden.  the best of all was a little five-year old girl who was so interested in where we were going and where we'd been.  she insisted on letting her mother allow her to sit with us while we ate, so she could ask us questions about what states we had visited and what we saw along the saw.  and she was so proud of her own cycling prowess.  "i can ride without training wheels now!" she beamed.  her mom was all smiles.  so were we.

so i'm off for a massage, a light dinner and, hopefully, an early night so i can get some sleep.  tomorrow it's another century up to louisiana, missouri.  ooh rah!