Day 50 – Crossing the Mississippi

By Mark Heggestad
Another great day.  Perfect weather.  Good road conditions.  Beautiful scenery.

We continued to bike steep hills today, but they were further apart and fewer than yesterday.  A couple ascents got up to a 14% grade, but nothing as challenging as yesterday.  Today was just a fun 84.2-mile ride from a starting point east of Centerville, MO to Chester, IL.  That’s right, we made it to Illinois today.  We crossed the Mississippi River from Missouri into Illinois.  We have now biked through seven states with three left to go.

Crossing the Mississippi was interesting.  It was a busy, long, narrow, two-lane bridge so I could not really savor the experience.  However I did glance north as I crossed it, thinking about its origins in Minnesota.  Felt a little surreal.  Kind of like an attachment to home.  After 50 days on the road any attachment to home feels good.

We finally met one of the TransAmerica bike racers today.  Every year there is a bike race over the exact route we are riding.  It is a crazy thing.  The rules are pretty simple:  must travel the TransAmerica route (same route we are biking), cannot have any support what so ever, and cannot draft behind other bikers.  The winner receives no payment - just honor.  158 racers started the race on June 3rd.  100 are from the U.S. and 58 are from other countries.  The guy we met today is from the U.K.  He is hoping to finish in 23 days.  Last year’s winner finished in 18 days, 10 minutes.  That’s 4,200 miles in 18 days (about 230 miles a day).  They stop for little naps when they are completely exhausted; otherwise they bike all day and through the night. Brian and I occasionally get asked if we are one of the racers.  Today there was a woman videotaping me as I rode by.  She was a little disappointed when I told her I was not one of the racers.  The racers are in phenomenal shape so I would be lying if I told you I don’t feel good when someone mistakes me for a racer.


Still rolling hills, but nothing like yesterday

Starting to see more open pasture again

Bridge we biked across the Mississippi River

The Mississippi River, looking north toward home

Made it to Illinois today!


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