Linking four previous rides, all described in earlier blogs, Bro Mark and I have before this ride pedalled Route 66 from Los Angeles (Santa Monica) to Gallup, New Mexico.
Since Bro Mark would be in the Midwest USA visiting his kids and grandkids during month of June, we decided to start this Route 66 trip on at St Louis, with Chicago our destination. (We'll need to go back to Gallup, New Mexico, some day, and complete the almost 2,000 km (about 1,200 miles) between there and St. Louis.)
Mark planned the 538 km (332 mi) trek to be completed in 6 days, averaging about 90 km (56 mi) per day.
We extended an invitation to our families in the event any members of questionable sanity would like to join us.
My niece, Mark's daughter, Laura jumped at the opportunity and started training for the trip in early Spring. (I am not inferring anything about Laura's Pre-trip sanity, but after hanging out with Bro Mark and I for over six days, well, let's just say, all choices have consequences.)
Rather than camping, we decided to stay in the most economical, but "respectful," motels we could find. All were, mostly, but a couple were marginal. (We rated motels by such standards as: Do they provide toilet paper? Is the water cold or almost warm? Are any biological life forms identified on the sheets? How many bites do you have in the morning? Does the itching go away by lunch time the following day? Is there Kleenex? Soap? Small containers of cheap shampoo? Is it prudent to prop a chair against the door at night to make breaking in difficult? Etc.)
After months of training, planning, and packing, Mark flew into St Louis on the afternoon of Monday, June 19.
Laura, who lives in Illinois, just north of St Louis, drove there and picked him up at the airport. They had a lovely dinner that night.
Sunday night drove from my home in Ontario, Canada to Sarnia, Ontario, the border town to the USA border city of Port Huron. I stayed in a motel that night. Early next morning, I crossed the border into Port Huron, parked my car at the train station, where I boarded an Amtrak train at 6:30 AM with my gear and bike heading for St. Louis by way of Chicago. I did not have a lovely dinner that night.
Arriving in St. Louis around midnight, I attached my gear to my bike and pedalled through a well illuminated but eerily deserted downtown St. Louis to the motel where Mark and Laura were digesting their nice supper. We all fell asleep around 1 AM, hoping to generate enough energy for Day 1 of our ride when the sun came up.
We have readers from all around the world following this blog, so I thought I'd provide some perspective.
Another perspective courtesy of Google Maps. But this is not an accurate plot of our route. See the next photo for that.
If you can zoom on on this photo, you'll see a much more accurate indication of our route.
And now I invite you, the reader, to join this ruggedly good looking guy with a winsome smile that he did not practice for hours in front of his mirror, on a virtual bike ride on historic Route 66.
We have readers from all around the world following this blog, so I thought I'd provide some perspective.
Another perspective courtesy of Google Maps. But this is not an accurate plot of our route. See the next photo for that.
If you can zoom on on this photo, you'll see a much more accurate indication of our route.
And now I invite you, the reader, to join this ruggedly good looking guy with a winsome smile that he did not practice for hours in front of his mirror, on a virtual bike ride on historic Route 66.
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