It looks like a beautiful day. I am going to try taking Hwy 72 to Cape Girardeau, but if it's a bad road I'll cut off on the back roads on the Adventure Cyclist maps.
Hwy 72 ended up being a good utility road. It had a 4-5 foot shoulder the whole way to Cape Giradeau, 54 miles. It was a pretty boring ride today, I was just making miles. There were lots of hills and a slight headwind, so the going was slow. My legs were aching all day !
I stopped several times at gas stations to drink Powerade and water and eat some food. I stopped about 3:00 to take a nap under a shade tree by an old church. The scenery wasn't very spectacular, and there weren't any interesting sights. It was just a day to get back to the Mississippi River.
I thought it would be all downhill to the river, but I ran into some pretty challenging hills when I got to Cape Girardeau. I called Eldon at the Rose Bed Inn to get a room, and he said to just come by after I ate dinner. I rode downtown and it was hopping. There are a lot of restaurants and stores here.
I went to Buckner's Brewery and had a sampler of their beers, along with a great chicken club sammich. I tried their honey wheat, Belgium wit, raspberry wheat, strawberry brown ale, porter and root beer. I liked the porter best.
It was a great dinner and I talked with several people at the bar about bicycles, traveling, bike trails, the olympics, and beers. After eating I headed to the Rose Bed Inn. Eldon showed me around and told me about the history of the beautiful old house. This place is WAY too nice for a bicycle bum like me !!
I'm drinking a delicious Schlafly beer and getting ready for a bath. Tomorrow it's back into Illinois. I only hope there aren't so many hills !!
