GMRR Day 14 - St Genevieve, MO to St Louis, MO

The link to today's route and ride statistics can be found here.

Before I get in to today's discussion, I need to revisit yesterday.  St Genevieve is reputedly the oldest city in Missouri.  We had dinner in the old downtown section at a place called the Anvil Saloon.  The building dates to 1856.

It is a lovely building.  We ate upstairs, and the bar and floor were nice wood.  It has been well taken care of over the years.  The whole downtown area is doing well.  A couple of doors down from the Anvil is a building that advertises itself as the first brick building west of the Mississippi.


Now on to today's adventures.  They started out inauspiciously for me.  About 4 miles in to the ride, I popped a spoke, and had to call for our support staff to come rescue me.  They were quickly about the task, and I am happy to say had me fixed and on the road in short order.  They had also fixed an annoying clicking sound I had been fighting for a couple of days, so I was a happy camper from a bike point of view.
Today's ride was probably our most challenging so far.  We had 85 miles and I recorded about 5600 feet of elevation gain.  It was mostly the rollers that Missouri is so well known for.  Some of the shorter ones hit as much as 12% grade, but we had one about a mile and a quarter long that stayed between 7 and 10% the whole way.  I remember from my cross country trip that they said if Missouri was ironed out flat it would be bigger than Texas.  Most of the scenery was similar to the last couple of days, and since I was behind the pack, I did not stop to take any pictures until we were coming in to St Louis.


Here I am in front of one St Louis landmark.  I will show you me outlined by another.


We are right down by the Gateway Arch and the waterfront.  From my hotel window I can see the capital building looking one way, and one end of the arch looking the other.  I will report on what I see on our day off tomorrow.  My roommate went to see the Cardinals play the Cubs.  I probably should have gone, but figured I would fall asleep by the 3rd inning.