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Thursday morning (Day 18)

I couldn’t start writing this until I got Dana’s text from St. Louis. He’ll be here in an hour. I hope he will allow me to load everything into the car. Let’s see what happens. So I’m sitting here eating a cookie we bought last night before the malteds. I made Dana stop eating it before dinner.

We’re actually planning to drive back to St. Louis today and see Kelly and Luke. When I texted them our location last night, they texted back their location: an air conditioned hotel room in St. Louis. They took Amtrak from Hermann. Honestly, if my first tour had included camping every night… Yeah, good for them 

When we first met them in Kansas City, they were thinking maybe from St. Louis, they would continue riding, via Route 66, to Chicago. Sometimes ya’ gotta pivot.

So hopefully we’ll see them later, sometime before their 5:40 train to Chicago. Let’s see what happens.

Thursday evening 

We met Kelly and Luke at the Arch and did the touristy thing. Fun fact: the arch is the tallest national monument in the smallest national park. After the Arch, we all had dinner, and hugged goodbye. We’ll probably never see them again, but I hope we do. 

Dana’s ride this morning was hell. 10 flat miles, then 1200 feet of climbing in the next 20 miles. A 12% grade for 1/3 mile. He actually had to walk that one, and he had no extra weigh! Wanna guess how many hills I would have walked with the panniers? We’d probably still be climbing into St. Louis.

As we drove to Terre Haute, where we are sleeping tonight, we passed through Casey, Illinois, home of the world’s largest: 

  • Wind Chime
  • Golf Tee
  • Pitchfork
  • Mailbox
  • Wooden Shoes
  • Truck Key:
  • Barbershop Pole
  • Teeter-Totter
  • Golf Driver
  • Swizzle Spoon

And the following large but not largest: 

  • Antlers
  • Bird Cage
  • Bookworm
  • Cactus
  • Ice Cream Cone
  • Minion
  • Mousetrap
  • Pencil
  • Piggy Bank
  • Softball Bat
  • Spinning Top

Speaking of lists, here’s a list of all of the things we’ve lost or broken on this trip (obviously not in order of importance):

  • Dana’s right shift lever
  • Helmet intercoms
  • One laundry sock
  • Dana’s reading glasses
  • My BLEEPING button
  • My bike computer
  • One bike outfit
  • My pink and blue shirt
  • Dana’s knee, arm, shoulder and back
  • My black baseball cap
  • Our front windshield

What didn’t break: 

  • Our sense of humor
  • Our sense of adventure 
  • Our marriage

Friday morning

I found my pink and blue shirt. Somehow, that feels like a bigger deal than it is.

We were on I-70 for 3 hours yesterday and 4 hours today, and we haven’t seen any truck fires! Let’s see what happens. 

We keep seeing highway signs for Uranus Fudge Factory. So many punny billboardsI Like, did you know that the best fudge comes from Uranus? 🤣😝

Saturday morning

I just ate the Old Timer’s special at Cracker Barrel. Sigh

Monday morning

We are heading home today. Notice I did not say we are getting home today, because I don’t want to jinx us. Yesterday we visited 2 friends in Syracuse, and we spent the night in Utica. Other than that, it’s been 2 days of (thankfully) uneventful driving. 

HOME! Thanks for reading, hope to you all soon!