Days 20-25; Tue.-Sun. 7/15-20, Pedaling & Thinking

Post date: Jul 20, 2014 7:09:51 PM

This will have to be more of a stream-of-consciousness type blog or I'll never complete it. So here goes . . . It was a solid week of covering miles. For numbers people, we pedaled 6 solid days covering about 367 miles. This included a short stint in Illinois. Today I'm sitting in Telegraph Cafe, St. Louis, MO writing to you. I've just had a roast beef sandwich. It's a rest day and will be topped off by watching a St. Louis Cardinal baseball game. Hopefully they'll score many runs against the LA Dodgers.

Country impressions--beautiful green rolling hills, crossing the Ohio then the Mississippi rivers, sunshine (feeling extremely blessed as the weather continues to be unseasonable great), finding lodging which has included a very rustic campground, a methodist church, a KOA, and a volunteer fire station.

People impressions-- talking with John about his dream of buying acreage in southern IL at $675/acre and putting up a pole or modular house, of Travis and his struggles with the VA hospital system, of our neighbor and the 5 high school kids who forgot the poles to the large tent they borrowed, of the waiter who raised 5 kids and now is wondering what to do.

Thinking--as I entered Illinois my mind wandered to memories of my mom, dad and own family. Would my parents approve of what I'm doing? I hope so. Is my son doing all right in Corvallis this summer? I hope so. How is Elise doing w/ two jobs? Well, I hope. We saw some Amish farmers, in carriages on the road and their immaculate farms. This made me think of my father. Between watching the road for potholes, road-kill (seen way too much of that) and other riding challenges, you do have time to think. That's one of the benefits of a bicycle. It slows you down, giving you to do be instead of just do.