Day 16: 5/10/21: Ellington. MO to Chester, IL

Fantastic night's sleep last night. Very deep sleep. I woke up at 4:45 a.m., and was out of the door riding at 5:00 a.m.

I saw another touring cyclist's bike and tent pitched in Centerville. There was no sign of movement, so I did not go knocking on the tent door to converse with him/her about their trip.

I made it to Johnson's Shut Ins State Park which is in a beautiful valley. Below are a few pics from the park's visitors center.

Below are a couple of more pics from the valley.

From there, I went through Ironton/Pilot Knob which is where my route from Kansas intersects my route to Kansas. A few pics from the Battle of Pilot Knob monument and information about the area.

My second breakfast today was in Ironton at the Rustler Cafe.  It was about 40 miles after my first breakfast, which was a banana and PopTart.

I lost one sock from one pair, and one sock of the other pair was ripped to shreds. I kept the other sock of each pair to possibly use to wipe my bike chain or do some other cleaning. Until I need one for cleaning, I decided just to make my own unique pair of socks :)

Below are a few pics from downtown Farmington.

The City allows cyclists to stay at the old jail pictured below.  It is now called Al's Place Bicycle Hostel.  It would be cool to stay there, but it didn't work for my schedule.

I came out of these hills...

Immediately into this terrain.

It remained flat until I crossed the Mississippi River into the city of Chester, IL. I think I singlehandedly caused Google Maps to turn the traffic flow across the bridge below red.  There was a good line of traffic behind me on the bridge at one point. 

Chester has some very steep hills around town.  Below are some pics from around Chester. I'll let you guess from the pics what Chester's claim to fame is.

 I camped at the Cole Memorial Park in Chester with the police department's permission.

Total miles today: 109.7