PowerCycle

04/09 Dad and his 5 kids had to get an emergency bailout from Mom at 4:30am. It was 35 F in my tent so you know it had to be pretty cold for them. I’m just glad the Dad had enough sense to pack it up (of course, going camping unprepared wasn’t such a good idea in the first place).

Rode on my first ferry today. It was rather exciting. Glad the thing didn’t bump around too much and knock me over which would have been rather comical for the 10 cars also on it with me. The first one over the Illinois River was free but then I had to pay $3 to cross the Mississippi. Cars got charged $7. The route I took between the two rivers had some nice rolling hills. Met the owner of the Golden Eagle Country Store which isn’t open for business yet. Rich (pretty sure that’s right) saw me pulling up to his store right when he was leaving. I was in need of some water because I’d left the camp with zero. Dumb move on my part and the last time I’ll do that. After about a mile I realized I’d forgotten to fill up but I kept going anyway. It was probably 10 miles until I got to his store. He’s from Fort Lauderdale and is also a cyclist. Even though his store was still getting set up he took me inside, gave me 3 bottles of frozen water and filled up 2 of mine with tap. He also hooked me up with a bag of peanuts. Cool guy. Hope his store does well. It’s the only one for miles so I’m sure it will.

The chronic rear flat tire has been solved. I’m knocking on wood but it looks like the problem was with the Presta valve stem. The tip that you screw down was fine but where that screws down into can also loosen and be removed (or not tighten all the way which is what happened to me). Who knew? I happened to discover this when I was riding by a bike store in St. Charles, MO (not Saint as Liz pointed out). So they replaced the tube and I was back up and running. Nice couple of bike techs working there too. It was Momentum Cycles if I recall.

The weather today went from bad to worse. Wind all morning and then a cold, steady rain this afternoon. Supposed to get 2 inches tonight and even more tomorrow.

I’m within spitting distance of the Katy trail so I’ll be on it tomorrow. The ACA map I’m using only follows it for 151 miles or so and not the full 225 miles that the entire trail runs.

GPX Track