Clarksville, to St Louis, MO

Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Distance Cycled: 70 miles
Total elevation gain: 1,040 feet
Our Total Flat Tires on trip to date: 1

Last night we had a unique experience at supper. Mary Kay is a vegetarian and nothing on the menu was vegetarian. She ordered a baked potato and green beans. The green beans were cooked with pieces of bacon. She picked out the bacon and put it on my plate. I ordered a side of buffalo. I got a fish that was thin sliced and then deep-fried so long that the slices were almost as hard as a rock. I thought I was getting buffalo meat. I could not eat this fish so I asked for a hamburger and got a cheeseburger instead. Mary Kay had to ask for a grilled cheese sandwich in order to get enough to eat. So ended our supper.

Today we headed south to St Louis and guess what by 9:00 AM we were going into a head wind again. For about 30 miles we spent most of the time slowed down by the head wind. When we reached the outskirts of St Louis, we had to find a way from highway 79 to the streets that would take us to our motel. We had a map that showed the major streets but did not show any secondary streets. We got lost almost before we started. Mary Kay asked a man for directions on how to get to the street we wanted and we followed his directions. We managed to get lost again within 2 miles. Mary Kay stopped and asked another man for directions and we ended traveling into the country and then backtracking into St Louis. We crossed the Missouri River on a major highway bridge and found a bicycle path to get us off the highway. We then traveled on more back roads until we turned into the town of Hazelwood, via a climb up a 9% grade. We rested in the front yard of a friendly woman who gave us directions on how to get to the Hampton Inn where we had reservations. We got lost again when we were only 3 blocks from the motel. We finally called the motel and got instructions on how to reach the motel. All in all it was a hard day, partly because we had not had any good meals. We ate breakfast at a gas station, finding stuff to eat and heating it in the microwave. Lunch was a sandwich sitting on the sidewalk outside another gas station.

The people at the motel were great. They gave us bottled water and goodies when we arrived and they gave us transportation to and from a restaurant for supper. The food tonight was very good. Everyone had enough to eat and no one wanted a desert. The motel must of felt very sorry for us for they also gave us a voucher to pay part of our dinner. Sometimes even the worst of days have good endings.