Yesterday was Chester to St. Louis – tail wind to 18 mph, 77 miles / 127 km
We have had remarkably good weather. I’ve had one day of headwind for a few hours that slowed me to 8 mph from our usual 10–11 mph. We had rain while we ate lunch, and then we rode in a light drizzle with no wind for an hour, which felt about the same as riding in a shirt wet with sweat, and we have had heat which every single local says is mild compared to what we could have had. We have had no downpours, wind storms, or head winds. In fact, looking at the pictures, you can see that we are riding blue sky summer days, such as Alberta gets in August. Overcast has been welcome for the few days that we enjoyed it. Amazing.
Meantime, a day’s ride to the east, they had 4 inches of rain in 2 hours and the streets flooded. New Orleans has been flooded with 10 inches of downpour.
All this good weather, good times with friendly hosts, and Carrie and I continue to get along after two weeks of riding together. That’s some kind of record for a chance meeting, I think. Did I mention the mostly table top flat roads with smooth pavement? And then we get a tailwind from Chester to St Louis, that pushes us at 18 mph. Carrie at 20 mph, since she rides stronger than me now, at her own pace, and we keep in touch by meeting in agreed places or call each other for location in towns.
The Bluff Road had us seeing dozens of recreational riders, and motorcycle riders. It’s obviously a local favorite.
I started real slow out of Chester to warm up the tired muscles, and was back in the groove after a couple of hours. We got to our intended destination by 1 pm, and called our hosts to see if we could come a day early, then completed the final ride into St. Louis by 3 pm, with the highway taking us directly to the Arch. 
I had to go up, and since there was no line up, I was soon looking back from where we came. Flat, as you can see. Corn already four feet tall.
We got a bike map, chilled in the Hyatt to figure it out, and rode on designated bike ways directly to a park and restaurant district where we ate supper near to our host homes. We will each be in a separate place, and head out together on Wednesday morning. Or will we?
I slept soundly last night and woke to discover my body and brain shut down and moving hardly at all. Something has been beating on my muscles, and continues to pound inside my head. With no riding to pump in the endorphins, there will be suffering. There has been suffering before. Will we go on? Stay tuned.