Well, we've been all over the place since the last time I wrote, but I think we know where we're going now.
We had a good time on Halloween! The best part was this spooky bike ride we went on with a bunch of folks all dressed up and checking out the haunted sights of St. Louis. We met this cool dude, Mark who fed us sweet persimmons soufle from marble-sized fruit he found at the park, and invited us to a pot-luck the next night at New Roots urban farm collective, where a group of folks have an empty lot in north St. Louis with a big market garden, an outdoor kitchen and a bunch of chickens...very cool.
We headed out of St. Louis to the town of Kimswick where we heard was the last gas-up for a while for boats heading south. But apparently we're a bit late in the season to catch pleasure-boaters heading south and barges aren't legally allowed to take passengers. So we were pretty bummed out to get back on our bikes, after we'd been so high on hopes. But we gathered ourselves and decided to head south-west instead towards the Ozarks and East-wind intentional community, where a group of about 80 folks all live together and run a nut-butter factory out in the hills. We'd met a couple from there at Dancing Rabbit and they invited us to come for a visit. But after a couple days into our detour as the hills got bigger, the roads narrower and the accents thicker, we were starting to question out direction. We were in Boondocks, USA where folks with thick, slow drawls were saying this like, "Kay-ni-duh...that's like a whole 'nother country, ain't it??" So after a few miles of close calls with semis and a driver screaming out the window at us, we decided no amount of free peanut butter was worth continuing, and that we'd hitch a ride back towards the river the very next day.
That morning we woke with a good start to find out that Obama had been elected! Thank goodness the election craze is over now. Our day got better when we got picked up by Earl the plumber who took us the whole two hours to Cape Girardeau in his boat car, asking our opinions about love and telling us about his four wives that all ran away. We were just glad to be out of the Ozarks in a hurry.
In the Cape he dropped us off in a parking lot that just happened to be across the street from the bicycle shop. So we headed over and met some great folks who invited us out to their wed. night ride and phoned up Judy the local bike-tourer host. She's 70 years old and puts us to shame with her level of activity. She lives alone with her yappy dog Ginger in a huge mansion that her grandmother designed and she grew up in and we stayed two nights to regroup and figure out our next plan.
That night we met the local bike geeks at Burrito-Ville. A small group of 20-somethings riding fancy fixed-gear bikes with bull-horn handles, clicking around on their clipless peddle shoes, wearing layers of lycra, nylon, and fleece with water-proof courier bags filled with cans of cheap local beer. At first we thought, 'who are these kids?' But after a few drinks we all loosened up and had a great night buzzing around the streets like a swarm of bees, shouting out "Car up!" or "car back!" to keep each other safe. With blinking red lights in the half-moon night darkness, we rode to the old bridge and looked out at the river at night, to an old fort in town and to a couple of parks. They ride fast and drink hard. We had fun.
Judy sent us on our way down the back roads through a slice of Kentucky and into Tenessee, where we've been having a true southern experience. We met some old-timers who took us on a horse and buggy right and told us to go eat BBQ at Nicky's restaurant. Well, Nicky turned out to be quite a sweet-heart. He bought our lunch and phoned up his church to let us stay for the night. We ended up helping him out at a catering gig that night too after one of his girls phoned in sick and we made $40. each. The next morning we went to service at his church and made even more money from generous folks. They just gave us cash and wished us good luck on our travels. It's been a profitable few days with about $80 each in total! That should keep us going for quite a while.
We should be in Memphis tonight or tomorrow and we're hoping to get a ride out of there on Craig's list all the way to NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana). We're both getting a bit sick of riding and camping and small-town after small-town. We still do about 60km a day but in better time, though since the time change we have to stop sooner and sit around in the dark more. The weather is getting cold again and we're just keen to get south. Thanks for all the wishes of wind at our backs, though more often than not it's from the south.
Looking forward to a change of pace.
Take care for now.
Love Sheri
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