Day 65: 7/24/19: St. Charles, MO to New Athens, IL

I ate my hotel breakfast and headed out with the big city of St. Louis in my sights.  It's always a bit daunting thinking about biking through a major city, but when all is said and done, it is usually a good experience.  This was the case with St. Louis.  I was able to ride on bike paths and roads that did not have a lot of traffic on them at about 11 a.m. when I rode through town.  I'm sure it's an entirely different experience during rush hour.

This was my experience about 25 miles out of St Louis...

And this was the car folks' experience.

I met Greg (pic below) on the bike path and he rode with me a few miles. He showed me a "super secret" way to avoid some traffic.  It was up a steep gravel road that had me pushing again  :)

We also went by a waterfall that has a tragic story about it (pic of falls and info below).

I cruised through Forest Park in St Louis (pics below).

In Forest Park, I met Doug (pic below) who asked about my trip and told me a route to get to the Arch.  Doug is 60 and fell and broke his neck when he was 58.  He has mobility issues, but is still riding using a 3-wheeled bike.

Doug's route took me by the St Louis Cathedral (pic below).

I made it the the Arch (pics below).

I got on the Eads Bridge and rode in to Illinois.  I do not recall an Illinois sign on or after the bridge so I just used the one below from archives.

The difference between St Louis, MO, and East St Louis, IL, just on the other side of the river, is amazing. There is a lot of poverty in East St Louis.

Photo of a fountain in Belleville below.

As I was headed toward Belleville, IL, John (pic below) drove by and then stopped and asked me about my trip.  He is a Warm Showers host for touring cyclists, and has done some bicycle touring.  He also came to the campground, and we visited a couple of hours talking about biking and Federal offenders.  John was previously a case manager at a Federal halfway house, and I'm a retired Federal probation officer.

I decided to stop for the night in New Athens which is a German community.  As such, Athens is not pronounced the way it is in the south, it is pronounced "A-thans." I did my laundry (probably the last time this trip) and cleaned and oiled my bike chain.  Photos of New Athens below.

The campground I'm staying at was underwater a few weeks ago, and they are still cleaning up from the flood.  As a result, there are only 2 tent campers there.  Should be a quiet night.  Pic of campsite below.

I went to eat at the Mexican restaurant in New Athens for supper.  Pic below of the folks at the table next to mine.  They were celebrating the 59th wedding anniversary  of the couple looking at the camera.  They were all curious about my trip, and asked  me several questions about it. They pretty much included me in the celebration dinner.  They also gave me some anniversary celebration cake and ice cream.

Total miles today: 69.4