Day 29 (May 11) St. Charles to Mulberry Grove (86 bike miles;2065 cum miles)

We left the Sleep Inn in St. Charles, MO and headed back to Route 94, Destination: the Mississippi River and the State of Illionois!

An option was to take the ferry across the Mississippi at Grafton, but, after hearing about the high bluffs there, we decided to stay on the RAM route through West Alton, MO and the bridge to Alton, Ill. Rather than the hills and valleys that had characterized most of Missouri, the route was flat with fertile fields and farms which were within in the flood plains of both the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.

There were many railroad crossings (thankfully PERPENDICULAR to the road), which we navigated with no difficulty. We arrived in West Alton and the end of Route 94. We proceeded onto Route 67 towards the River. Soon after seeing a friendly sign, Charlie got a most peculiar flat tire. Strangely, the puncture came from INSIDE the wheel. There was no evidence of a puncture anywhere on the tire. After a makeshift fix, we headed for the bridge which allowed me to take a slight detour to check out a wildlife refuge constructed by the Corps of Engineers.



After crossing the river into the City of Alton, Illionois, it was time to look for a bike shop. we found one close by in the historic portion of town. On the way I passed the spot where the last Lincoln-Douglas debate took place before 5,000 people.

Passing through Alton, I came across a statue of Robert Wadlow, the world's tallest man at 8 ft, 11 1/2 inches, who unfortunately died at the age of 22.

We passed thru a number of small towns, eventually finding a really nice campsite in Mulberry Grove.

There we were joined by our new SAG driver, Jay Bowman, who is from Davenport, Iowa. Jay, 25, will be starting grad school in the fall at the University of Minnesota at the Hubert Humphrey School of Public Policy in Minneapolis.

That evening we had salmon that Martha had picked up with baked potatoes and Indian vegetables.