Bardstown, KY-to-St.Louis, MO

As we were biking from Bardstown, we ran into a guy name Bryan on the road, all decked out in reflective gear, mirrors, front and back panniers, a handlebar bag, shoe covers- the whole sha-bang. He was intense. He was also wearing those scary sunglasses that bikers wear. Well a little bit of talking and we discovered that HE WORKED AT BARD FOR SIX YEARS!! The coincidence was too much to handle. So we biked with him for a few days. That day, we crossed over the Kentucky boarder, into Illinois. The whole time, Daniela couldn't get her mind off of this Amish store that was going to close at 4:30. So we raced there, faster than you could imagine. I've never seen Daniela so determined. I was more interested in it's neighboring store, the really cheap, damaged food store. So we went on a massive shopping spree. We got great deals on Cliff Bars and bought sooo many of them. We also got organic honey almond butter for 69 cents. It was incredible! Daniela zoomed ahead to get some cheese from the Amish man with a nice big beard. Then, as we remounted our bikes and started towards the Ohio river, it began to thunder and lightning. We were in a huge plain, next to the river, maybe 1.5 miles long and we could see the tremendous bolts of lightening crossing the sky. Then it started to drizzle and pour and we started to bike faster and faster towards the great river. When we finally got onto the ferry, it was really raining, and I've never felt happier. It felt incredible to make it out of Kentucky. Crossing a river on a ferry was such a good feeling.
We camped at a place called Cave-In-Rock, underneath a pavilion full of picnic tables. Went swimming in the Ohio. Bryan was really fun and we just joked and laughed. Bryan, by the way, eats so much food. Everytime we stopped he'd pull out his peanut butter and jelly and make three sandwiches!!!
That night, at 11:30, we started to hear some roudy teenagers a little ways off making a ruckus, talking really loud, probably drunken. And then, they drove their big truck right by our tent and just blared the horn as long and loud as they could. Following that, they screamed some obscenities. Then they drove away. This scared the sleeping Daniela so much that she jumped out of her sleeping bag and almost toppled the tent over.
They didnt bother us again, but it was a little scary to go to sleep.

They next few days, we rode with Bryan and he really made riding so much more fun. His intensity pushed us a lot and we did a 90 mile day!!! To make it up the big hills, we played "what if god was one of us" and sang along. Sometimes, he would make us laugh so hard that we couldn't bike! But then we had to part from him in Chester, IL where we went North to Belleville and he kept on West through the Ozarks.

We are currently in St. Louis, Missouri, my home land! It is so nice to be back in this city! We spent the last two nights in Belleville with my grandparents and had a great time eating strawberry shortcake and just chatting. My grandparents are two of the strongest people I know. We might be biking across the country, but they can still spend hours weeding the strawberry patch in the hot hot humid Illinois summer. It was great to relax with them for a day.
In St. Louis, we biked through a bike fair called "close the streets" or something like that. They shut off 6 miles of roads for people to bike on! It was so nice! You could ride all over the road and talk to some really neat people. We met a great couple who told us some information about the Katy trail. We ran into them later at Bar Italia!!!
Well, I am going to go take a much needed shower! Thank you very much Lowells!
And happy birthday dad, if you are reading this!!
Until next time,
Jocelyn