Day 33: Kirksville Missouri to Quincy Illinois

Today’s Highlights:
We completed our journey across northern Missouri over the last three and a half days. There must have been one thousand hills in that three hundred mile ride, and I enjoyed almost all of them. There were no mountains or canyons or grand vista, but it was beautiful in a simple and peaceful way everywhere. Three hundred miles of thriving green fields and meadows and farms. Small towns and lone farms spread miles apart. Quite country roads, where if you stopped, only the songs of birds and insects could be heard. And friendly, down-to-earth people.

Today started out special, because it is the 4th of July. Tommy and Emma decorated their bikes in celebration of the occasion. A few other people carried small flags, but that paled in comparison to Tommy and Emma’s creativity, so they easily won first and second place in the contest. Other than that, the day was like others, with ideal weather for cycling. It started out comfortably cool and ended pleasantly warm, under another clear blue sky. Our route was on quite country roads. Most were in good condition, but we did have some rough sections today. Overall, Missouri had excellent roads for us. We cycled passed farms and ranches all day, and rode through some Amish communities. I saw some people traveling by buggy again, and a couple young men working in their sawmill.

The hills diminished around mile seventy when we reached Canton, Missouri, near the Mississippi River. Our route turned south and followed the river. hence we enjoyed some flat riding in the final twenty miles. The Mississippi is swollen now and the fields between the river and road were flooded. Even the railroad tracks were under water. In the town of La Grange, some parks and lots on both sides of the road were flooded. Because of the flooding, Michelle rerouted us to a high bridge over the Mississippi River, and unfortunately we had to be shuttled across since the bridge was not safe enough to cycle on. Midway over the Mississippi, we entered Illinois. We continued our cycling in Quincy Illinois on Maine Street, where there were many fine old mansions. Some were decorated for the 4th.

Pictures Of The Day:

[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000IfgaMiHlp1Q” g_name=”Day-33″ f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_send_to_friend_btn=”t” f_fullscreen=”t” f_smooth=”t” f_up=”t” f_topbar=”t” f_bbar=”t” f_htmllinks=”t” f_mtrx=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”400″ height=”300″ bgcolor=”#000000″ btype=”new” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” twoup=”t” trans=”xfade” tbs=”5000″ f_ap=”t” bgtrans=”f” linkdest=”c” f_constrain=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.Y5fFlcXmBTXbNYSMGrXljwMCMVnfqvFRVQLu9BtcrfHS58btm4A–” ]

Go to full Cross Country Bike Trip Gallery

Statistics:
Zoom and pan the map to explore the route. Click the name or ‘View Detail’ to view more information at Garmin Connect.