Day 15: Into the Great Wide Open

Hannibal, MO to Nauvoo, IL

Stats!
Miles biked today: 73.1 (a new record!)
Total miles biked on trip: 508.0 (a new century!)
Max speed: 31.0 mph
# of motorcycles that passed us (going both directions): 117
# of degrees Fahrenheit: 93
# of closed bike shops: 2
# of state lines crossed: 1

All last night I dreamed about biking. Our rest day in Hannibal, while sorely needed, was pretty darn boring, and I was ready to get back on the road. We even only ate 3 meals on our rest day, and I think we could have been okay with 2. But since we ended up biking so much today, I'm glad we had the third.

We set out this morning pretty early, and started the day with a quick jaunt on the interstate -- I-72. It allows bikes across the bridge over the Mississippi only, and there's a HUGE shoulder, so it wasn't very scary. Still, I was glad to get off the interstate, and be welcomed in Illinois, the land that loves Lincoln (as Dean pointed out, we love Lincoln, too, but Illinois is almost as proud of Lincoln as Missouri is of Twain. I'm not sure if Illinois should be more proud or Missouri less... ?).

The great majority of our first 55 miles today were F L A T. It was glorious! You could see for miles and miles. In fact, I had the song that goes, "I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles," in my head, along with the Peter Pan tune, "You can fly, you can fly, you can fly!" We were going about 20 mph for much of the way, due to the extreme flatness and a rare tailwind.

We were excited to stop in Quincy, IL because there was a bike shop there, and we need various items that you can pretty much only find at bike shops. It was closed for the holiday, as was the one in Hannibal. No luck at all for us on that front.

Quincy was also our last chance to feed and water ourselves for another 35 miles, so we hit the local Irish pub (most everything else was closed for the holiday) and had a fine meal before hitting the flatlands again.

The wide open spaces are pretty, but it does get a bit monotonous. I'm not complaining, though! I'll take 70 miles of flat over 15 miles of mountains any day of the week and twice on Sundays (and national holidays).

We also stopped in Warsaw, IL. That town had been our original goal destination, but since we got there at 1 p.m. and Nauvoo was only another 20 miles down the road, we decided to press on. We had a WONDERFUL second lunch there. It was hot, hot, hot and without much shade on our route. After 35 miles of that, we were ready to cool off and refill our water bottles ASAP. The cafe where we stopped had the most delicious lemonade I've ever had. We left feeling very refreshed.

That was good, since the last 20 miles were hilly. It wasn't bad at all -- they were all achievable -- but when you've already biked 55 miles, 20 miles of hills seems a bit harder. Dean and I now have two categories of hills -- achievable and "walkers." We hit two walkers today only, both going into towns from the flat riverside.

Speaking of which, the river is still a bit flooded, and we saw lots of underwater picnic tables and such.

Tomorrow I am hoping for another super flat day. Even if it's a little bit hilly, we should make it to Iowa. Exciting!!

I feel really good about how far we biked today. It really shows how far we've come from day one. 63 miles that day was killer, and 73 today seemed much easier, and both were on flat terrain.

Tonight we're camping at the Nauvoo Dairy Sweet and RV Park in our tent. It's nice to save some money and it's kinda fun to sleep in the tent, so long as it's not every night or in tornadoes. Should be nice tonight!