|
||
|
|
|
|
You couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Last night's rain really cooled things down, and we had blue skies and light winds all day. The guys at the feed store in Williamstown said that a couple tornadoes had touched down nearby last night. We saw some evidence of this, with the siding blown off one side of a house. We had a fun encounter with 3 dogs, who looked like they were out of a Disney Incredible Journey type of movie - a big golden retriever, a medium size coyote-looking mutt, and a little mop dog. They were very friendly, although covered with ticks (and probably fleas). The retriever followed us at about 16 mph for the better part of a mile. We crossed the Mississippi River by a ferry from Canton, Missouri to Meyer, Illinois. The ferry is like a barge and a tug-boat connected together. The tug part swivels around in mid-voyage, so that it can always be pushing. Cool. Unfortunately, crossing this way meant that we never saw a "Welcome to Illinois" sign. This part of Illinois is a lot flatter than Missouri. The 20 miles from the ferry to Quincy were almost entirely quiet country roads - very pleasant. Quincy seems like a nice little city. We passed a lot of beautiful Victorian houses on the way through town. (Of course, we're staying on the outskirts, next to the strip-malls.) With one thing and another, I logged a full century (100.25 mi) without even meaning to. This is my second unofficial century of the trip. And the next two days are going to be centuries as well. Actually, in retrospect, my cyclometer is just off. When I got new tires in St. Joe, they didn't have 30mm, so I got 28mm. The smaller tire means the wheel is turning a couple more times to cover the same ground, so I'm off by something like 2.5%. It's annoying, but the only way to reset the wheel size is to reset the cyclometer, which means I'll lose the odometer reading, which is almost 2500 miles at this point. Sorry about all the pictures - there was a lot to see today. |
|