Day 39: Chester, IL to Farmington, MO

Distance: 48.2 mi, Climbed: 3,343 ft
Completed: 1,464.8 mi, 76,959 ft

I had a beautiful day to restart my journey across the country. The sun was out, it was warm, and the little wind there was, was at my back. That is right, today was the first day of the trip with a tail wind. It was not very strong, but every little bit helps.

Actually, it may have been a bit too warm. The official high today was just 80 degrees. But weather forecasts usually give you the temperature in the shade. Out on the open road, my bike computer read as high as 95 degrees. It felt very hot. I did my best to keep cool, taking breaks in the shade, and drinking lots of fluids. 

The day began crossing the Mississippi River to enter Missouri, our 10th state. The historic Chester Bridge is very narrow. They are building a new bridge to replace the Chester Bridge that has a wide shoulder for bicycles. However, I arrived in Chester a little too early as the new bridge does not open for a month.

Whenever I enter a new state, I look for a good welcome sign to immortalize the occasion. The Chester Bridge has a sign halfway across marking the Missouri state line, which would have been otherwise perfect. However, since the bridge is so narrow, I had to take most of a lane and block traffic for safety. I do not think the line of cars behind me would have appreciated me stopping in the middle of the road to take a picture. So, I settled for a Great River Road, Missouri sign.

The first ten miles of the ride was as flat as a pancake with beautiful farms on either side. It was interesting to see how much bigger the corn and wheat crops are after two weeks away from the bike.  

And just like that, the flats ended and the climbing began. I could see the first hill off in the distance as I road through the farm land. It was a mile long and only moderately steep except for one very steep kicker towards the end. Very manageable. It was the first of thirteen climbs today. I would climb 3,343 feet by the end of the day. While the climbing was constant, very few of the hills hit 10%, making most of the hills very doable. I keep hearing about the steepness of the Ozark Mountains. I suspect today was only a light introduction of what is to come.