Granite City layover day

It was nice to have a layover day!!   Everyone still gathered for coffee around 7 but it was much more leisurely.

Usually people are focused on eating breakfast and getting all their gear packed up ready to leave. No such pressure this morning. The group I normally

ride with finally gathered around 10:30 and we headed off ( on bikes of course) to the Lewis and Clark State Park which was only 5 miles away.  The museum was quite interesting. It is to commemorate the start of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

We hung around there for a while, rode back to camp

and then on another 3 miles to the Itty Bitty restaurant to have lunch. Great, classic diner with excellent homemade pie. After that it was back to camp to shower, do laundry and just kick

back to get ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow we ride over the Missouri River on the Chain of Rocks bridge into St Louis. Goodbye Illinois – here we come, Missouri. This will be the beginning of five days of hills and lots of climbing. And it will be in the high 80’s!!  Should be an interesting first day in Missouri – 53 miles with 2,300 feet of climbing ( on a loaded bike!).