Gateway to the East?
Day 20 - Washington, MO to Mascoutah, IL (81 miles and 2,600 feet of climbing)
The St Louis Gateway Arch was built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States and is commonly referred to as the “Gateway to the West”. But what if you changed your perspective a bit and were biking from the west for the last three weeks? We would say that it represents the “Gateway to the East” and another milestone in our journey.
Today, Robin and I got on the road early again because there was another extreme heat advisory. We are getting used to the heat by this point, and we have plenty of water and ice to keep ourselves cool. After all, the heat advisories in Arizona were for temperatures above 115. The temperature today will only be 95 degrees.
Robin is getting stronger and stronger as the days go by; she rode 49 miles with 2,100 feet of climbing. We rode in the country for the first 20 miles with a lot of hills before we hit the suburbs of St Louis. In one hour in the suburbs, we saw more bicycle riders than we had seen for the entire ride. They seemed to be coming in all directions and lifted our spirits. The remainder of the ride was in urban areas with lots of stop lights that gave us brief rest stops. We rode past St Louis University (SLU) which is the alma mater of our niece and nephew. As we were taking a picture, we saw Shannon, who was ready to start her ride.
Shannon and I rode across the Mississippi into Illinois without any fan fare. There were no signs anywhere and we honestly wondered if we were in another state. Of course we were, which makes this the 7th state we have visited. After backtracking a bit to take a picture of the arch, we went 15 miles to the rest stop. The towns on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River were very run down compared to the Missouri side, but there were hardly any cars or traffic lights. Shannon was hurting due to the heat and her numb hands, and I thought she would call it quits at the rest stop but she drank a Coke, got a second wind, and rode the remainder of the ride to our hotel. She ended up with 33 miles.
It looks like the heat will finally break here tomorrow. They are calling for rain all night and only a high of 86 degrees tomorrow. Hopefully, we wont get wet, but can enjoy the cooler temperatures.
