Proud Mary Keeps On Rollin

 I think the song may be about the Mississippi but it was in my head today. 

The day started at with some grey skies. I will admit as our stupendous SAG wagon driver who someone said must have the patience of a saint drove us to where we ended yesterday it looked like another rainy day. We had to make a stop on the way back, so our drive took over an hour on back roads to get from our hotel to the beginning. 

It was a lot of up and down sort of steep, rolling hills for the ride back to Mexico which was on our route. One of the highlights was Thom being chased by 2 dogs. After he dropped them, he stopped to text me and warn me about the dogs. When I approached them, they just looked at me with their tongues out. It turns out Thom's speed had exhausted the dogs. 

All the rain the past few days brought out several turtles that we saw in the beginning of our ride, That was fun. Around mile 50 in Ladonnia we stopped for lunch. The only place in town was the Hobo Bar and Grill, a biker bar but not our type of bikes. The food wasn't bad and I felt energized and took the lead for most of the remaining 41 miles to the Mississippi. While we were fighting a pretty strong crosswind, there weren't many hills.

Except I knew from my Garmin there was a climb right at the end of Missouri. I assumed that was going to be the approach for the bridge. I also assumed that since there was a constant downhill for about 7 miles prior to the uphill, we would be able to see the bridge and the river for a long time. In my mind I was expecting something similar to the old Tappan Zee Bridge, 

I was wrong. We didn't really see the bridge until we got on it. It was a very boring concrete bridge with no engineering significance that I could see. The river was big and wide as I so thoughtfully point out below, 

Here are some shots of Thom and I on the state line.

We decided to call it a day after we crossed the bridge. We had ridden 90 miles the tough crosswind and after a tough day yesterday. Claudia then had to drive over an hour from our hotel in Springfield to come and get us. A bonus was waiting for us in the car. Claudia's friend Carol had baked us some chocolate chip cookies to eat after our ride. 

If you remember earlier in the ride Thom has asked me what was different about a particular day. It turned out we hadn't seen any trains. Today I asked Thom what two things were different about today's ride from many of the past 9 days. Thom correctly guessed one of the differences, no rain. He couldn't guess the other difference, we only road on paved roads today.  A little advanced planning helped. Now if you guys could only get the wind to go in our direction. We haven't had a favorable wind since we ended in Dalhart, Tx.

PROGRESS

Did I mention we made it to Illinois? This is our eighth state and we only have seven more to go. 

TOMORROW

We hope to make it to Springfield, IL.

OTHER NEWS

Some of you may have been too busy reading this blog to miss other sports news. Here is a quick summary. The Yankees have won three in a row including a no-hitter thrown by Corey Kluber last night and the Knicks (yes the Knicks) have made the playoffs.