Ride the Rivers Century
October 1, 2006

It was a great ride. Tom and I met early in the parking lot of the Tap Room. This was a good sign, we were going to end in the parking lot of one of the best micro breweries in St. Louis. We also got a free beer ticket to use when we were finished. The great people of Trailnet also gave us socks as the ride premium and as I was wearing my sandles I was glad to have the socks.

We started riding West through St. Louis and headed to St. Peters and the Missouri River. The food for this ride was great. Normally you get the usual cookies and banannas but on this ride there was clif bars, apples, orange slices, oreos, trail mix and enough so every one got as much as they needed.

At the fist rest stop I saw Bob Foster who had a broken spoke on his front wheel. He left the rest stop after Tom and I did and finished the ride with a broken spoke and the front tire wobbling. He is a better man than me...

Well the first half of the ride was hilly and very scenic. Very peaceful and a great ride. We crossed over two rivers on ferries. The Golden Eagle and the Brussels ferries. The Golden Eagle ferry has a fee for crossing but the organisers took care of that and the Brussels ferry is free. After crossing the Big Muddy (the Mississippi) we went through Pier Marquette State Park and arrived in Grafton for lunch. It was sandwiches but you got a choice and it was made to order for you. The bathroom accomindations were lacking but the stop was really nice.

After lunch we rode South on the River Road out of Grafton to Alton. I've ridden this many times in the past but it was always earlier in the day. We were in the midday sun and against the wind. It seemed like we rode for 40 miles this way and I was getting tired but I had the Tap Room to inspire me to finish.

Once we were out of Alton we took stayed on the levys along the river until we got to the Chain of Rocks Bridge. We then took the River front path to Laclede's Landing. There was a couple of events going on at the same time and we actually got stuck in traffic on our bikes.

Tom and I arrived at the finish around seven hours after we started, thirsty and tired.

Stats; Dst: 100 miles, Avs: 15.1, Mx: 32.5, Tm: 6:25