Day 30: 2,000 miles! 7th State Line Crossing, Mississippi River, Historic Mansions, Walking Tours

Pictures added by Jean at...3 am. Ugh. (Resume/cover letter/Bailey won out. As anyone who knows me knows that kitties always will!)

Gil's cliff notes (Sent Sun 7:33 pm):
Weather was threatening from the start. Overcast with black clouds. 5 miles out saw a bank of clouds on our right that were interesting (see picture [but probably not pictured here - Jean]). Wavy, swirly clouds. Looked like we might outflank them. Not the case. Soon were in a heavy downpour and soaked. Water in shoes. I did have my rain jacket and it kept me warm. Saw a group of riders taking shelter at a little country store but decided to press on. Dale now some distance ahead of Tony and I. We rode for about a half hour in some bad rain. When a car or truck went by we were enveloped in mist and water. Fortunately we were on a country road with no 18 wheelers. Road was also freshly paved and smooth which made going easier. The wind however wasn't with us and we were only averaging 13 miles an hour. Then it stopped. An hour into ride we saw Cross Roads support along the road and they had a sign reading 2000 miles. Yippee!. Lifted our spirits and we took pictures. Afterwards got caught in another downpour. Pressed on and at mile 54 stopped at small store and had some fried chicken and coffee and ice cream. Good!! Made Mississippi River around 1:30 PM. An emotional moment. More pictures. Then once across the bridge took pictures at IL state line. [see Gil to the right, in the center of the picture - Jean]

Quincy is a pretty city with nice mansions along Central Ave., where our hotel is located.

Dale handled video and beat everyone to the bridge. Did a great job of taping and rode very strong.

Ate Supper at Kelly's, an Irish place. Nice ribs and salad bar. Ice cream was good too.

A lot of what Gil sent above is in the material he told us about during our phone conversation, so my input will be even less than usual. Their ride from Kirksville, MO to Quincy, IL was 74 miles (a lot of which was in several heavy downpours....such fun). However, he said it was a "pretty good ride," so I guess in comparison to some of their days it would have been "pretty good," but riding all day in the rain doesn't sound "pretty good" to me. They were happy to see the "2,000 mile" sign. During one of the downpours a small group of cyclists took refuge for awhile under the Knox City Post Office awning [see second picture of post - Jean]. The high-point of today's ride was crossing the Mississippi River and entering their 7th State of the tour. Dale was manning the video camera today and was ahead of most of the riders, so he managed to get pictures of many of the riders crossing the Mississippi River. A number of riders rode the SAG wagons today, some due to the past 2 days of hard rides and some due to the rain. Tomorrow will be a harder ride...107 miles to Springfield, IL.