Day 6: 5/31/2022: Chester, IL to Meramec State Park

Pic below at Devils Kitchen Lake taken yesterday between Goreville and Murphysboro.

Last night I stayed at "Eagles Bicycle Shack", a bicycle hostel hosted by the Eagles Club (Fraternal Order of Eagles) in Chester (pics below).  Fortunately, I had the whole place to myself.

When I arrived at Chester yesterday I was hot and tired and decided to "belly up to the bar" at the Eagles Club and have an ice cold...

...and it hit the spot :)

I couldn't leave Chester without taking a picture of Popeye (pic below).  E.C. Segar, the creator of Popeye, was born in Chester.  I just wonder how many kids nowadays even know Popeye.  🎶I'm strong to the finich, cause I eat me spinach. I'm Popeye the sailor man.🎶

Pic below of the bridge I used to cross the Mississippi River.  I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning to try to beat some traffic over the bridge.  It seemed to work as there was not a lot of traffic on the bridge.  You really understand how wide the Mississippi is when you bicycle across it.

Woohoo!!! I made it to the "Show Me" state.

The last 2 days I have been riding on U.S. Bicycle Route 76.  It has been a really nice route with definite perks, such as agreements for lodging for cyclists arranged by Adventure Cycling Association.

Today after I crossed the Mississippi River I left USBR 76 at St Mary, MO, and began heading more north.  

At St Mary, I actually got on the Mississippi River Trail (MRT) bicycle route for awhile (pic below).

St Mary is a very small one flashing light town.  It was so quiet that I found myself mesmerized watching their flashing light below.

I went through Ste. Genevieve, and this is the first time I have biked there. Some pics below.

Pic of a beautiful valley below.  View is nice, but unfortunately I-55 goes through the valley so there was a lot of traffic noise.

A few pics around DeSoto, MO.

DeSoto, even though small, has some outdoor pickleball courts. I'm a little jealous.

A few pics of Richwoods, MO.  The town has almost completely dried up, but it still has a nice Catholic church.

This afternoon most of the roads I was on looked similar to the pic below.

After a long day, I finally made it to Meramec State Park. When I pulled into the park, a directional sign indicated the campground was 2.8 miles away.  I wasn't expecting that.  In addition to that, after about a mile, I had to climb a BIG hill with 100 miles already on my legs to get to the campground.  Sure wasn't expecting that either:(

Total miles today: 102.2

Day 5: 5/30/2022: Goreville to Chester, IL

Memorial Day 2022

Flags flying in Goreville, IL, this morning.

Flags flying and memorial at Murphysboro, IL, mid-day.

Flags flying and memorial at Chester, IL, this evening.

Total miles today: 75.88

Day 4: 5/29/2022: Cave-In-Rock State Park to Goreville, IL

I had a great night's sleep last night.  The campground was quiet after about 11:30 p.m.  The pavilion I was sleeping under was in the RV section and was a lot closer to the bathhouse than the tent section, so the campground host really did me a big favor letting me sleep there.  He told me the campground is not full this Memorial Day weekend because of high gas prices.  I rode through the tent section this morning and there were almost as many tent campers as RVers.

I got up and made it to the park restaurant a little before 7 a.m.  Their on-line information indicates they open at 7.  Workers at the restaurant were out smoking, and they told me the restaurant didn't open until 8.  I didn't want to waste an hour waiting for the restaurant to open, so I left and rode about 11 miles to Elizabethtown. It was during this 11-mile ride that I thought to myself that I should have asked the restaurant workers if there were any bananas in the kitchen that I could buy from them. Oh well, it was too late by then. I think I'm having banana withdrawal pains.

In Elizabethtown, I ate at the Town and Country Restaurant, which is in a building built in about 1900. I had a cheese omelet and a large pancake. After I finished eating, I was relaxing and drinking more water when I overheard a customer order a scrambled egg sandwich with Miracle Whip and a tomato on it.  That made my mouth water so I ordered an identical sandwich and ate it also. I decided I had better leave before someone else came in and placed an order that would make me order another meal. I asked the waitress if they had any bananas, and she said they no longer keep fruit because it rotted too fast.  Out of luck again.

Pic below of Elizabethtown in 1908. The Town and Country building to the left in the photo.

Pic of the same general area of the town today.

Some pics of the building's exterior and interior below.

I met Ralph (pic below) who is from San Francisco and is riding from San Francisco to Emerald Isle, NC. He has been riding about 5.5 weeks and has ridden about 2500 miles. This is his first bicycle tour and he told me it will probably be his last. My advice to him was not to sell his nice Co-motion Divide touring bike immediately. After he has been back home a few weeks and the daily struggles of bike touring are behind him, he will probably start remembering all the positives of touring and will want to go on another one.

The next cyclist I met was John (pic below). He is from Los Angeles and is biking from Phoenix, AZ, to Maine. He left Phoenix on April 18. He has biked across the country 3 times since he retired 5 years ago.

Both Ralph and John told me about a German couple cycling across the country from east to west that they had met earlier today. I made it to Goreville United Methodist Church where I will be staying tonight and sitting in front of the church were Anton and Ute (pic below) who are staying at the church tonight also. They are from Munich, Germany and are biking from New York City to San Francisco, CA. They are calling it the bridge to bridge tour, from Brooklyn Bridge to Golden Gate Bridge. They began on May 3. In 2012, they both completed the New York City marathon. They visited California on one other occasion with their 3 daughters, who live near them.

Some scenery pics from today's ride.

Pic below of my camping spot inside the church. The church opens it's doors and allows cyclists riding on U.S. Bike Route 76 to stay inside. They also have a shower and washer and dryer for cyclists to use. We all did our laundry at the church. What a perk!

Best of all (drumroll please), in Goreville I got...

I'm a happy man:)

Total miles today: 68.7