Great River Road Ride - Day Two

Today was a day of structures and ferry’s, not those kind of ferry’s – river ferry’s. It’s unbelievable how friendly people are and although I’d like to believe it’s my looks, ya know it’s the bike. Almost everyone got out of their vehicles on the ferry rides to check out the bike, hear about the trip and make suggestions on destinations - needless to say, I didn’t get to where I was hoping to for the day, but that’s nothing compared to everything else that happened, listen to this.

Well ok, remember I was a government worker for breakfast this morning. Of course the skies were just cloudy and grey then, but as soon as I was ready to leave, 10:00 (same time, different day), it was raining. I was hoping to get thru St Louis and on my way toward Memphis that I figured no need to wait so I strapped on the rain gear and took off. Ladies if you’re looking for a good exfoliation, just ride a bike in the rain for a few hours. It was a comfortable ride with the rain gear and new bike, but the most important is keeping the shiny side up.

Well, when I finally reached Burlington it had let up, but it wasn’t until I reached Nauvoo that I was blessed. Those Christians of Latter Day Saints have one hell of a building and view – oops, should I even be mentioning hell in the same sentence?

Quincy was a whole other story. I decided to treat myself to an upscale lunch at The Pier which had a great view, but if it weren’t for the Red Hat Ladies group, it would’ve just been another lunch. I had a great time with you ladies and although I’m sorry I couldn’t stick around and don’t have any plans to move to Quincy anytime soon, trust me, you’ll be the first to know..

From there it was on to more Great River Road riding and eventually me running outta gas. Yep, with the new fuel injected bike, I don’t have the reserve to switch over too and I knew it was destine to happen. Once I finally noticed I was low and stopped at the only gas station in town, they were out of gas – a gas station out of gas? you bet. Well, the next town, 8 miles away didn’t even have a gas station. When I hit the gas on my way out of town, the damn thing quit on me. I had notice an auto shop in town that I figured if I could get it back there, maybe they’d be able to help me out. Well, not even the owner thought he had any, but was able to find a container with just enough to get me to the next station…like he said, today must be my lucky day and thanks, I appreciate you selling me the gas and hope you still got your lawn mowed.

Ok, now how I ended up here, the Econo Lodge in Erueka MO. Well since my travels lasted later than I expected, I didn’t get to downtown St Louis until 8:00 and wouldn’t you know it, they did it to me again - no rooms downtown because of the baseball game. The cheapest they found in the burbs was a $110 bucks that they sent me here lookin for a campground. Well, Jelly Stone wanted $20 for a campsite and after getting lost in the state park where I found out I couldn’t camp, this was the best thing to come along – for $20 more it’s worth sleeping in comfort.

What a day, but I’m finding out that if you treat people with respect and kindness, you’ll get the same in return.
Here are the rest of the pictures.