OK, now that I have your attention (big grin). Today I woke up, drank a cup of coffee and my wife asked me if I wanted to go over to Cape Girardeau, MO and ride while she hit some yard sales. I told her that my knee was haunting me a little and that I thought I would pass, but ended up loading the bike to see what I felt like when we got there.
Funny how you can start a ride with trepidation and then end up 24 some odd miles later wishing it would never end. I had one of my best rides ever. First off, it was a fantabulous day with azure blue sky and temps that topped out at 66 degrees.
I was dropped off in the parking lot of a local strip club on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. This allows for an always fun BIG BRIDGE crossing. Cape Girardeau is an old river town, and around here, that means HILLS. This entire town is a series of big wonderful hills. Cape is extremely wheelchair friendly which lends to easy use of sidewalks when the road is not available.
An accounting of the day included: 1 Strip Club, 1 Mississippi River Bridge, 1 Peach Orchard, 3 Parks, 2 Hospitals, 5 Parking Garages, 1 university, 1 River Front, Hundreds of Hills Climbed and 1 Big Ass Cobb Salad at the end of the ride!............I want to elaborate on the parking garages a little. Next to sneaking onto a golf course path at night, I think parking garages may be my second favorite urban riding venue. The ride up all the levels is like one of the longest hills. The ride down is uber awesome!!!!!
Here is a link to all 42 pics from today, and below are a few to highlight the ride. I still can't begin to describe how good this ride felt.
http://s425.photobucket.com/albums/p...004%2017%2010/
The starting point.....Anybody got any $1's
Crossing the Mississippi River
Yes, I rode through a peach orchard.
Great now I have got that song stuck in my head (if you are old you will get it). BTW...that hill is common for this ride.
The artsy bike tire shot.
Academic Hall at Southeast Missouri State University
The River Front
The Wall of Fame on the River Front. If you go to the link with all the pics you will see that there are 9 of these pictures. Several famous Missouri folks.
This gives an idea of the terrain changes that are very common in this town.
This is one hell of a Happy Clyde.
