Distance: 97 miles
Average Speed: 18.8 mph
Terrain: Hilly for first 80%. Dead flat on the floodplain. 3400 feet of climbing.
Winds: Light tail to cross
Land of Lincoln! Out of Missouri! Crossing the Mighty Miss!
Question: To look at the old mansions in the center of Quincy, this place was once flush for real. I was expecting a beat to shit rustbelt town on the river, but it’s definitely not that. What was the source of the largesse? Anybody know? Post a comment.
It was kind of a weird riding day today. First, we had to improvise a route across the river because the ferry we intended to use was busted. So for the second half of the day we had a SAG van running around ahead of the group painting arrows on the road. Second, I was the only one that felt like going hard today. After yesterday there were some dead legs, and we’ve got a rest day coming up after tomorrow’s ride into Springfield. I think folks were taking it easy today to recover for going hard tomorrow and then recover from that over the rest day. Whatever the case, I had the creeping sensation over the second half of the day that I had outrun the SAG van and was about to do a Huck Finn down the river and double the distance getting back.
Anyway, I didn’t. It was tough terrain for most of the day. The Great Plains are a ripoff. They’re more like the Barely Plains.
Second question: Why do the people of Missouri have a Southern accent? Fakers! I was going to call a waitress on it, but then I thought, “What if she’s an alien? What if they’re all aliens working with bad information?” I decided not to trifle.
Going scattershot here. So, I finished off Missouri and found myself on a bridge going across the Mississippi. Now you got to understand this is a big river, and this bridge has no shoulder and only two lanes heading east, and it’s pretty darn busy. I couldn’t wait for the rest of the group or the SAG van. They were like an hour behind me. I understand this is no club ride and we’re riding roads one doesn’t usually ride, but I was looking at this thing going, “Huh. Really?” What you do is you gobble a gel and sprint for it. The problem is you’ve got 90 miles in some beat legs and that sprint isn’t going to be so sprint-like. This is an instance where you rely on adrenalized terror with which I’m richly supplied and gun it. I swear I hit the midpoint doing like 26 mph. The problem is this mother doesn’t have the arch of a regular bridge. It just keeps going up until you’re in Quincy. I don’t really know why I hadn’t sussed that out before I started this foolish venture, but on the other hand I can’t imagine that any of you are all that surprised that I didn’t. By the time I hit the end of the bridge all of the adrenaline had dribbled out of my terror, and I was out of the saddle pumping out a brisk 13 mph and wondering who the hell had run off with all of Sexybike’s low gears. Anyway, I guess in Illinois they’re used to dealing with the weirdness of the Missouri aliens because nobody ran my ass down and here I am clacking away.
Hannah’s got her junior prom tomorrow. I feel pretty bad about not being there. I would feel worse if I had any doubt at all that she can beat the shit out of her date. By such small favors….
Night all. Tornado warning here. It should have been in Kansas.
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Andy. Congrats on crossing the Mississippi and passing the halfway point of your eastward trek. Your prompt to find out the source of Qincy's wealth led me to Wikipedia, where I found the following.
ReplyDelete--Quincy is known as the Gem city. While that suggests a possible source of its wealth, no mention was made of why it is thus named
--Quincy is the seat of Adams County, both of which were named for John Quincy Adams
--Quincy was a stop on the Underground Railroad
--Quincy earned a warm spot in the hearts of Mormons for taking in thousands of them who were chased out of Missouri on their westward trek
--a massive railroad bridge across the Mississippi makes Quincy an important trade center, a possible cause of its economic vitality
--Quincy was first settled by migrating Yankees who were followed by German immigrants. The German immigrants were a huge influence on the architecture, that is considered one of the highlights of the city and explains the many beautiful structures your saw
--Quincy is located on bluffs, which explains the archless bridge across the Mississippi
--two new words for me popped up in the Wikipedia article. Qincy is considered a "micropolis," ergo the Quincy "micropolitan" area
More than you wanted to know, but thanks for sending me on an information-gathering trip.
Ron
P.S. This is the second time to write this comment. The first one did not appear overnight, but in case two turn up . . . .
Maybe the southern accent was part of the Missouri. compromise"
ReplyDeleteOji
Andy - A little dose of terror in bike riding is always healthy - I will never forget by sprint down Patterson Ave (Rt 6) to pick up my car in the shop - nuts with all those dump trucks! Congrats on making it so far!
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