July 26 - Rest Day Farmington, MO & July 27 - Farmington, MO to Chester, IL

Gloria

July 26 - Rest Day Farmington

We only did a few things on our rest day in Farmington.  

Michael - walked to downtown Farmington and had the best pizza maybe ever for lunch.

Eric - got a haircut and worked out on the treadmill.

Gloria - swam and got a massage.

The most important thing that happened was that Eric's sister, Ann, and her husband, John, joined us for Happy Hour and dinner.  We met Ann & John in the breakfast room of the hotel, where Eric had set up wine, crackers and a cheese dip.  After chatting for a bit, we went out to dinner at Catfish Kettle.  We each had a delicious meal.  Afterwards we shared...yep you guessed it...pie.  We have been eating our share of some pie on this trip.  Good stuff.

Ann & John live near St. Louis.  They drove 90 miles to join us for dinner.  Ann works in the school system helping special education high schoolers learn life skills.  John is a semi-retired investment trader.  They have 3 children - 2 boys and 1 girl.  Their oldest boy is getting married Labor Day weekend.  After talking to them for just a couple of hours, I felt like I had known them much longer.  They drove back to St. Louis after dinner.  Thanks for joining us, Ann & John!

July 27 - Farmington, MO to Chester, IL

Our ride today passed the Gloria Hill Test - the hills weren't too steep and there weren't too many of them.  But...there were hills...no shoulders and lots of cars and trucks.

We started out around 5:30 am from Farmington.  For the first couple of hours, there weren't too many cars.  It was peaceful and scenic once the sun came up.

Today we went through Missouri Wine Country.  We passed lots of vineyards and signs advertising vineyards.  I wanted to stop and take a wine tour, but we had to push on due to the threat of scattered thunderstorms.  We did not want to be in the middle of nowhere when a thunderstorm came.  Although...being stuck in a vineyard might not have been so bad~

We decided today to forgo lunch in order to make it to Chester before the rain.  But we did stop briefly at a convenience store in St. Mary, MO.  The attendant was very welcoming and invited us to sign her bikers book.  We obliged.

In order to get into Chester, you have to cross the Mississippi River by using a rickety (in my opinion) bridge that has so many patches that you can't tell where the original asphalt is.  It had no shoulders and lots of traffic.  We rushed across it.  I should say that Michael & Eric rushed across it and I brought up the rear.  Once you cross the bridge, you are in the Illinois town of Chester - home of Popeye.  There is a welcome center. We took several pictures here.

In the parking lot of the Chester Welcome Center there was an elderly gentleman selling watermelons and cantaloupes.  We asked him to take our picture.  It took awhile because he didn't look like he had ever used a smart phone before.  Still...it was a nice gesture.

Eric bought a cantaloupe and strapped it to the back of his bicycle.  It made it to the hotel without falling off!

Our 49 miles complete, we arrived at our hotel around 12:15.  During check-in we asked about food (we are always hungry).  The hotel staff said we could have Chinese delivered.  Perfect!  We had a delicious lunch.

Yinka, Alex and Adrianna arrived around 3:15.  It was so wonderful to see them!  After getting all their stuff into their room, we all headed to the pool.  Alex has become quite the diver.  He has torpedos that he throws into the pool and retrieves.  There was another family from Chicago with three kids in the pool, so we invited them to join us.  We stayed out there for quite a while and eventually played Marco Polo.

Happy Hour begins promptly at 5:30, so I must go.  Having good friends join us on this adventure makes life so much greater!