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Missouri Tour Day 18 – Back to St. Louis and Home

04 Saturday Jul 2026

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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!

Missouri Tour Day 17 – Augusta to St. Charles

04 Saturday Jul 2026

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We’re in St. Charles today! The end of the trail, at least as far as we are concerned. Got here around 1:00.  It was only 30 miles. We met Thierry and Jeff today, rode over 20 miles with them. We all had lunch at the Bike Stop Cafe just 1 mile past our hotel. They still had 45 miles to go after we separated. We had 1 mile to go. I didn’t feel guilty, although I think they may have slowed down a bit for me.  Fun fact: Thierry and Jeff met at a hostel on a trail in Oregon on their way across the country. 

Our average speed today was 11 mph. I think it’s because I had people to talk to. Or maybe because I had people to chase. Or because my computer broke, so I wasn’t focusing on numbers. Or because I knew it was only 30 miles. I am a very psychological athlete.

4:00 PM

We are sitting in a park on the river, watching people on the trail. We’ve seen a lot more locals than bike tourists, which is great. Because we’ve seen maybe 10 other tourists. 

St. Charles is an old, historic French town. And I’m going to spend a little more time here tomorrow, because… Dana is going to ride to St. Louis tomorrow without me, and without his panniers and front pack. So he gets some Carolyn-free time, and I get some ass-not-on-a-bike-seat time. I’ll pack and move everything and check out.

It’s a win-win. Okay, maybe I’m winning just a little bit more. 

5:15 PM

We’re sitting on Main St. in St. Charles, drinking malteds. If we are still hungry later we will have dinner. This may not be good for us, but we think we deserve it.

6:30

Ok, we’re having dinner. But it’s tapas, so we can go slow.

I may not write any more of these, at least not every day, unless something really good or really bad happens. We’ll be on I-70 tomorrow, so you never know. And a big THANKS to anyone who’s read any of my ramblings and observations.

Missouri Tour Day 14 – Rain Delay

04 Saturday Jul 2026

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7:30 AM

The weather forecast is for rain and thunderstorms all day. Dana just emailed the next B&B, hopefully we can move our reservation out one day. 🤞🤞🤞

Twelve years ago, if I’d suggested not riding in thunderstorms, Dana might have called me a meandering wimp. Now he said “great idea”. Getting older isn’t all bad 

7:35 AM

All set. Phew. Happy Anniversary to us. 35 years. We celebrated our 23rd on our ride to Florida with pizza delivery in a motel room, with sodas from the machine. And now I’m having the last slice of prison pizza for breakfast. I’ve been thinking about it since 3 AM. I really should have eaten dinner. 

My advice, to anyone thinking of doing anything like this, is to have enough time and money to pivot when necessary. Otherwise, I suggest being younger. Because I REALLY didn’t want to ride 40 BLEEPING miles in wet chat without the button. 

1:30 PM

We Ubered into town, had breakfast, bought Gatorade, considered going to a museum, then Ubered back to the hotel. The vote for the museum was 0 to >0. Sometimes 0’s gotta win. 

It is bright and sunny now. Of course it is.

I’m sorry if this is TMI, but I am (almost) completely slathered in Benadryl. I think one of the bites in my right neck cluster has a bite of its own. All of Dana’s bites have calmed down, and his knee is scabbing over nicely.

He worked harder the first half of this ride, I’m working harder the second half. But it’s no longer a competition. We will take a lot of rest breaks, learn a lot of history, and see a lot more of the Missouri River. Tomorrow’s destination is The Doll House B&B. We will stop at mile 30ish for a meal at Holzhauser’s Bar and Grill. Looks like there are no services within 10 miles of the dollhouse.