Kirksville, Missouri to Quincy, Illinois

What a great ride today!

Today provided us with a perfect bike ride. There had been a huge thunderstorm last night in Kirksville, so maybe that blew away a lot of bad stuff. I don't know about that. What I know is that this morning came with beautifully clear skies, bright sunshine that was not too hot at all, and a very nice gentle favorable headwind. The countryside was beautiful. The road quality was excellent and there was only insignificant traffic. There were enough hills to make it interesting, but only rarely difficult. Rides like today's are why I came on this trip.

I am feeling so much better physically. I still have problems getting on and off of my bike, due to limitations in raising, or standing only on, my right leg. Once on the bike today however, my right leg seemed to wake up this morning. It was lazy yesterday, but my right leg today decided to pedal as well as the left one!

As today's ride began, and with my then inept mounting of the bicycle, I was having doubts about myself. Ten minutes into today's ride however, I was feeling great. Confidence returning. Willie Nelson appeared out of nowhere. He sat on my left shoulder (presumably being aware that my right shoulder is still sore) and he sang "On The Road Again" just for me! It was cool. I was doing 22 mph then. I love that guy.

The grapefruit lateral to my right greater trochanter is horribly black, but it is now only an orange-size. I am back in the game.

I made it to Quincy, Illinois, a 74 mile ride, by Noon today! (OK, OK, that is the winds talking primarily, not me. Still, I feel good about it.)

Just barely 15 to 20 miles into the ride today, we hit the 2,000 mile mark! Tom took pictures of everyone individually as they came by, each holding an appropriate "2,000 mile" sign. I will have to see if I can get a copy of the one of me.

Crossing the Mississippi River was no fun. Nice quality road surface on the bridge, but no shoulder at all! Two lanes of traffic, so we rode our bikes fully in the middle of our own lane, thereby making it difficult for drivers to push us too far to the non-existent right side of the bridge. There were a couple of drivers who had colorful and animated words of encouragement for me, those words voiced out of their open windows as they drove by on the bridge. One driver even suggested a creative idea for something I might choose to do with my bike!

It is nice to see that we have utter morons driving cars in every state of this country! As a cyclist, I have learned that there will always be motorists with IQs ranging in the vicinity of room temperature.

Centigrade.

My riding clothes are washed and now drying. I need to rest up well today. Tomorrow is going to be a long and hard ride. We ride 107 miles tomorrow, ending up then in Springfield, Illinois.