Day 21,22,23,24,26

You Can Find me in St Louis!

Miles Biked: Alot

Hello from the gateway to the west....St Louis Missouri! Since the last time I've written in here we've gone through three states in 6 days! The hills are behind us, and a whole crap load of corn is in front. Welcome to the Midwest!

Louisville Kentucky almost seemed like day off. After a quick 40 mile bike ride (that Miriam said would be 20) I tried my luck with several HBC-ers at Churchhill Downs...the horse racing track home to the kentucky derby. I lost $6 on two races, but it was worth the $2 price of admission just to see horse jockeys up close in person. I am convinced there is a jockey farm somewhere in South America that produces these amazing small creatures. At night we all partied in club 113.....which is not a club, but a dorm room at the University of Louisville. I relived my days of living in the dorms and then it was time to leave the bluegrass state and hit up Indiana.

So no one told me.....but Indiana has hills. Not mountains, but I was surprised that I was rising and falling. We biked through the rolling hills of Indiana to our destination of Saint Meinrad. The town has a population of 800, but the Abbey was the size of Westminster Abbey. The day brought on our first bit of hard rain. So our wet shammy's (butt padding) were ecstatic to reach something with a roof. I'm not sure if I saw any monks, but I did see lots of old people. I keep asking myself if organized religion will be around in 40 years. Everyone seems to be 60 or above in these churches.

From Meinrad we biked through torrential down pours to the town of New Harmony. The rain took out my cell phone (although it seems to be breathing life today). New Harmony lies in the middle of no where, yet holds millions of dollars worth of fine art. We were given a tour of the town by the 93 year old widow of one of the towns earliest decedents. She is solely responsible for bringing in the kinds of art work the town has......and will talk you ear off about anything and everything seen in the town. Although New Harmony was beautiful, it creeped me out. I passed through several poor farming towns before reaching it, and it was out of place. So I was happy to move on to Thompsonville, Illinois.......population under 800.

Thompsonville sits also in the middle of nowhere......and thanks to Miriams route......we ended up on gravel roads for 10-15 miles. Gravel roads and road bikes don't go well together. The terrain was so rough I lost my brand new camera and passport (only form on ID) somewhere along the route. Corey put it best while biking when he said "I feel like I'm in a third world country! The roads were littered with stray dogs and even an angry hawk! Upon arrival the pastor took us all out to eat at a BBQ place on his bill.....I don't even want to know what he spent.

From Thompsonville we were supposed to go camping.......however a nasty thunderstorm broke out, and Beth talked to a local police department, who apparently called a church, which is why we apparently stayed in a gym in Chester Illinois. Chester.....as I'm sure you know......is home to the creator of "Popeye" the cartoon. Corey traveled down to the Popeye museum in his time off, bought a hat, took off his shirt, and played the roll of Popeye (minus the spinach) for the rest of the day. The town was small and contained the worst smelling Dairy Queen in the country. It smelled of a mix between sweat, ash tray, and human feces. I passed on the ice cream.

That leads us to today! The ride took us through more corn fields to the banks of the Mississippi. I passed over well behind most of the group due to my 11 mile detour (took a wrong turn) and now I am hours away from giving my first HBC slide show! Sam, Colin, and Andy decided to bike across the Mississippi naked. I'm not sure how they avoided arrest. I on the the other hand prefer to bike fully clothed. Well I am being summoned to leave.....I hope all is well with everyone! Time to go explore ST LOUIS!!!!!!!!