Day 19 Kirksville to Quincy (91 miles)

Well another day and another state, we're in Illinois now, the birthplace of Lincoln.

Yesterday was kind of frantic, I for one knew that I had to keep the pace up all day to get it done. Today the atmosphere was much more relaxed almost a holiday mood as there was plenty of time to do the published 97 miles. We were all hungover to some extent though. Not in the drank 14 pints last night and got in at 5am kind of way, but in the cycled 145 miles and my legs are still hurting kind.

It was big rollers again today. The photo is kind of typical of the beautiful meadowland. The sun was (unexpectedly) out most of the day and it was quite warm.

We crossed the Mississippi river just before arriving in Quincy. Usually this is done by ferry and is one of the highlights of the trip, but unfortunately for the first time in about 20 years it was broken so the team had to sort out an alternative route over a bridge. TLM had some ideas about how we might go, so took the van up to scope out the route. As always he did an excellent job, painting signs on the road at every turn and keeping a close eye on us at the main junctions. He relayed instructions back to Barbara and Karen who showed us the route and the lunchtime SAG. The new route was 7 miles shorter than the original. It still meant that for the first time we were following maps rather than the turn by turn route sheets which we normally have. So much effort goes into preparing these routes, every single turn, the quality of all the roads, current road works etc all have to be checked right the way across.

I seemed to be suffering more than most today. Dropped off in the morning and was last on the road for part of the time because I couldn't be bothered maintaining the pace. Also dropped in the afternoon, but only by about 10 minutes. I'm not too concerned, everything is fine, no aches or pains, just looking forward to the rest day on Saturday.

One disconcerting thing we do see along the road a lot are shrines, presumably to crash victims. We probably see about 8 on an average day. Sometimes they'll be a group of 3 and there's been one group of 5.

There's now only 7 riders and 3 staff, which means we're forming quite a tight knit group. 6 of us riders went out to dinner this evening and got on well. Hopefully we can continue for another 14 days without getting sick of the sight of each other. So few riders makes things like loading in the morning and getting through lunch very easy. Sometimes on these rides they have 70. It must be a nightmare, queueing for the toilets etc at service stations.

Staying in a Comfort Inn this evening. It rates quite highly in my heirachy of chain hotels, although it doesn't have a fridge.