Day 7

Today was supposed to be an easy day, today was not an easy day. I left Farmington headed towards St Louis around 10 am and punctured my rear tube less than 10 miles out of town. I sat down on the side of the road to pull out the offending piece metal and patched the tube, only to find that the tube had been punctured in multiple places. After finding more than 5 separate holes, I just changed out the tube, having wasted almost an hour on the side of the road. 

I wasn't riding 67 today, instead opting for smaller country roads, which was wonderful until I got lost. I took a wrong turn, followed by another wrong turn that took me down a terrifying technical descent down the side of a mountain, only to hit a dead end and have to climb back up. I made it up and got back onto my route, having wasted almost another full hour. I didn't realize my route today would take me on gravel, so I was very thankful for the wider tires that I had fitted to my bike!
I finally made it back to civilization and got on highway 61, heading north. Going through one of the towns I hit a bump and it broke a strap on my right pannier, but it was still able to hang on if I was careful. While making it into St Louis it started raining, but not heavily so I was about to push on, and it cleared up by the time I made it to the Arch. I had a Cardinals fan begrudgingly take a photo of me in my cubs jersey and was on my way to my host house.
My host Nathaniel was out of town but let me stay in his gorgeous loft in downtown STL anyway!

I showered and cleaned up, then hit a restaurant for a burger and a few shops before heading back in for the night. I woke up at about 6 am and went for a little run around downtown before stopping at the grocery store for some eggs and bananas for breakfast.


I'll be riding route 66 today and I'm not quite sure where I'm going to end up at the end of the day, as it looks like it's going to be storming all day.

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 6, 2017 at 1:54 PM

    Such a wonderful adventure! You can never predict the day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownAugust 6, 2017 at 6:34 PM

    You are an amazing man. I could not be more proud!

    ReplyDelete
  3. readergirl1228August 6, 2017 at 7:12 PM

    What an incredible trip. I'm so humbled by your bravery and courage in taking a cross country trip like this. Bravo, K! Be careful in your journey!

    ReplyDelete

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