Day 5: 7/28/24: St. Charles. MO to New Athens, IL

I had a wonderful night's sleep last night.  The bed and all accomodations provided by Richard were perfect.

Richard cooked me breakfast, and I pulled out about 7:30 a.m. after eating a couple of eggs with 2 pieces of toast with honey, and having a glass of orange juice and a cup of hot tea.

I rode on the Katy Trail a short distance today before exiting it for the last time this trip.  I grew to appreciate the trail more during this trip.  My previous attempts to use it on trips to Kansas all resulted in me getting off the trail at some point because I became bored with it, but not this trip. 

Driving through the St. Louis metro area always seems to take forever, and biking through it seems to take forever and a day.  I had ridden about 30 miles before I finally made it across the Mississippi River and entered Illinois.  Below are pics of the Arch and the Eads Bridge from the bridge.

Work on the Eads Bridge began in 1867, and was completed in 1874. It was the first bridge across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River. All bridges built before Eads were located north of the Missouri, where the Mississippi River is smaller.  All of the earlier bridges have been destroyed, which makes Eads Bridge the oldest bridge on the river. The Eads Bridge led to the large-scale use of steel as a structural material, leading the shift from wrought-iron as the default material for large structures.

The bridge officially opened on July 4, 1874. About 300,000 people attended the dedication and joined in on an Independence Day parade across the bridge.  The parade followed an elephant across the bridge to put people at ease about the bridge's stability.  Legend has it that elephants have a sixth sense and won’t cross an unstable bridge.  Also, when an elephant is on questionable ground, it will pound the surface with its trunk to test its sturdiness, placing each foot only in tested spots, and stepping in its own footprints as it moves forward. 

I got to the Kaskaskia River Camping and RV Park, where I will be camping, just before a strong thunderstorm moved through.  I got my tent put up before the thunderstorm, and my bike and I weathered the storm under a pavilion with a tin roof.  The sound of the rain on the roof of the pavilion was deafening.  The rain lasted about 2 hours and really cooled things off.

Pic of my supper buffet below with the Kaskaskia River in the background.  If Ella (Richard's daughter) could see this, she might understand why plain rice and beans is such a delicacy to me :)

Pic below of my campsite.

Total miles today: 67.5