To get to Illinois go to Maine and turn left....

One of the major events to the day was our entry into Illinois leaving Missouri behind. We crossed over the Mississippi river which was an exciting event for a couple reasons. First simply because it is such a famous and impressive river. It was running fast and muddy when we crossed but there was no shoulder on the bridge roadway so I was not able to get any pictures. And the bridge itself made the crossing exciting. We had a two-lane road and with no shoulder. We had to maneuver into the right hand lane and take a position in the middle of the road and pedal assuming that the cars will respect our right to be there...I'm here writing about it so apparently it worked. I did continuously glance down and to my right while crossing so I did get a pretty good view, probably better than if I had driven across in a car. At the end of the bridge is the "Welcome to Illinois" sign but it is situated so that you can get at it from the rear but no way can you go back out in traffic and get a picture. So in lieu of my usual state sign at border crossings I took a picture of a someone's license plate when we stopped for lunch - definitely second choice but better than nothing. And the bridge picture is actually the bridge for the westbound traffic which I saw from the Missouri side - I just liked the architecture even though we took the older eastbound bridge.

And as we exited the bridge we were put immediately into downtown Quincy and, since the city is right on the river, we also had to climb the river bank - we had a short but rather steep hill for the first two blocks. And when I caught my breath and looked up I noticed we were on Maine street - hence the title for tonight's piece. We continued down Maine for a couple of miles and the photo of the Cathedral is right in the middle of the business/downtown area. For such a old town the design of the church and its spire seemed particularly striking and was quite beautiful in the afternoon sun. Further on we came to a residential section lined on both sides by lovely old homes that I would guess are late 19th century origin. I included one photo but I could have taken 75 if I had the time...wrap-around porches, observation decks on the roof, beautifully landscaped - a most impressive neighborhood and an unexpected treat for our entry to Quincy.

When the day actually began I thought I would be watching the men's finals of the French Open. We had a bit of thunder and lightning at about 4:00 AM and when we finally went for breakfast about 6 it was raining and very dark. Again 20 or so folks huddled around watching the weather channel and wondering what to do. At 7 the decision was made: the lightning had passed and we had light rain and we can go in that -and go we did. I went out in a group of about 10 and it was kind of cool to look up a curving road and see this procession of fluorescent green and yellow jackets moving carefully through the wet streets. Fortunately on an early Sunday morning you don't expect much traffic so it was easy to just take it easy and concentrate on the road. There is not a big deal to riding in the rain really. Cover your wallet and camera, watch for the obvious puddles, stay off the painted lines (when wet they can be like ice) and just take it easy and muddle through. We rode like this for a couple of hours until , first, the rain let up and then the roads started to dry a bit and finally we got sun again. Of course with the sun we also got some wind and naturally it was in our face - that's an old story now, don't need to belabor that point. No matter what the forecasters say my experience is that if there is a wind it will be in your face - kind of Bob's first rule of cycling.We did kind of want to pace ourselves today knowing that we have a 100 plus day tomorrow so we basically rode in and out of all these little crossroads towns without stopping for much of anything. Along the way, however, we did have one more little highlight worth talking about - we passed the 2,000 mile point today. I had dinner with another 4 guys tonight and we all felt the same way - unbelievable. We are also at the four week point as of today and that is hard to believe too. On one level it seems like just a few days ago that we set out from Los Angeles and on another it feels like we have been doing this forever...ask me about Flagstaff and the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico and I really have to stop and think. Another reason for the photos and the blog...in addition to the communication aspect it will serve as a personal history.

One little town that was kind of cute was LaBelle (pop 233) where we spotted a kind of bike junkyard. In addition to the 100 or so bikes outside (photo below) the inside was literally crammed to the walls with bikes of every possible description. We looked to see if there were any old decrepit cyclists in there but saw only our reflection in the window...

And on that note I do believe it is time to cash it in - I think we are looking at 105 miles tomorrow and a little sleep will be a good thing.