Wheeled Migration

I woke an hour or two before dawn, too cold to sleep but too sleepy to put on another layer. At dawn the sky was crystal clear. I spread out my tent and sleeping bag to dry and hiked to the "lookout point" for sunrise, both of which turned out to be unimpressive.

Today was probably my worst day so far. To begin with, I ha promised to buy Corey breakfast at Waffle House, but I told him the wrong location, so he didn't find it. Then there was the rain, which started just as I was leaving Malinda & Corey's and continued all day without stopping. It was a colder rain than I've ridden in before; my hands and feet got pretty numb. Then it turned out that the jacket I got from Malinda's coworker is just a windbreaker, not a raincoat. My shirt got completely soaked, so that every time I stopped riding I got chilled. As long as I kept going I was OK.

I hung around Corey & Malinda's apartment most of the day. I washed my tent, applied waterproofer, and let it dry thoroughly, tightened the shock cords in the poles, and sanitized my hydration pack.

In the afternoon Malinda picked me up and we rode out to Cahokia Mounds in Illinois, though by the time we got there we didn't have much time to see the museum before closing. We climbed Monks Mound (the largest prehistoric structure in North America) and walked over to Woodhenge.

I went to work this morning with Malinda at Litzsinger Road Ecology Center, which was a private home and grounds but has been donated along with a generous foundation to the Missouri Botanical Garden. Three other volunteers came by and we "cleaned" seeds of prairie plants for several hours. Then I researched Katy Trail campgrounds and nutrition while Malinda worked in the afternoon. Having not heard from Elizabeth Collins, I decided not to try to go to Lawrence but instead to stay here an extra day and then follow the Katy Trail to its end and continue into Oklahoma.

Malinda had to work today, so I set out by bike to run my errands. The trouble I was experiencing with my 3-speed hub turned out to be loose wheel nuts (!!), so that was easy and cheap to fix. I got all the maps I needed from the central library with no trouble, and I paid my respects to the Arch.