Cape Girardeau to Ste. Genevieve, MO, May 26

After nearly 900 miles of mostly flat terrain, we finally had a day of hills! Sixty-five miles of hills! Jackie called them "gently rolling hills". Hah! Jackie owns Woman Tours and has a talent for marketing. She is with us for a few days while our primary guide, Laurie, is on vacation. (Michelle, our fantastic cook, has gone off for a month long vacation, so Linda has taken her place. She's brand new at this job, and has big shoes to fill, but dinner was tasty tonight, so I don't think we'll go hungry!)

Back to the "gently rolling hills" Jackie mentioned. They were rolling, and for that I am grateful, but they were not all that gentle. Judy and I (and a whole lot of the other ladies) really struggled in the morning. We just couldn't seem to get our legs working. However, after a stop for pie and ice cream in Perryville, I thought maybe I should get a tee shirt made that says "POWERED BY PIE". I felt much, much better. (I'm not speaking for Judy).

Things were zooming along until we suddenly dropped out of the hills, down a long, steep, lovely hill, and found ourselves on the flat land in a headwind. Aw, no big deal, it wasn't much of a headwind. Then we rounded a corner. Then we looked ahead and saw trees and a road, rising out of the flatland and up, up, up, up......

We hoped it would turn out to be another road. Surely, it couldn't be our road!

Alas, the hill was soon before us. We stopped for a moment to use the grassy green facilities and to ponder the task before us. "Let's just live here," I suggested. "Right there in the meadow. We can build a little cottage."

We decided against that option. We also decided against returning to Perryville for more pie. (Maybe the strawberry-rhubarb would get me up the hill...?) Instead, we headed for the hill. And made it. Later, I met with disbelief when I said that the recumbent had made it up the hill, but it did, under pedal power. I even had to stop 2/3rds of the way up to pick up my water tube. At least, I think it was on that hill. Hard to say, they all began to run together.

At the top of the hill, Judy eyed the Subaru with lust in her eyes, but we did some fast-talking and persuaded her to get in those last eleven miles. She did it, too, and was still standing the last time I saw her!

It was a lot of fun to have John with me, and a luxury, because he drove me downtown to see historic Ste. Genevieve. I so rarely get to see the towns, so I really loved being able to do that.

Once again, I didn't take many pictures, but John waited for us in town and took pictures as we biked in. The chick on the funny looking bike is me. The chick in the yellow jersey is Judy, who hails from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. And I am very sleepy. Tomorrow, we can't catch the ferry to Illinois (enroute to St. Louis) until 9:00, so breakfast isn't until 8:00. Sleeping in, yippee! Goodnight!