Changing Gears: Rey's Ride Across America

July 12th — Eminence, MO to Chester, IL — 128 miles It seems hard to believe, but today we should be out of Missouri and into Illinois by the end of the day. The maps I have for this route do not say much about elevation or climbing, but I know from last night there are some serious grades here. I don't have anything to tell me what to expect, but my intuition tells me I have some work to do to get out of the Ozarks.

I was right, of course, but what I didn't know was that the grades were more severe and numerous than I could have imagined. The Ozarks by mountain standards are small (only around 1,500 ft. for the top elevation on our route), but let me tell you: They pack a punch that will put you down if you don't have the strength to climb serious grades. I lost count of the number of times I had to ascend 15% grades. They were short, mind you, but they were endless.

Up, down. Up, down. If you could see the road in front of you for a half mile, you might see 4 hills in front of you. I have never seen hills in these numbers, just amazing. It’s good interval training, though, and I kind of enjoyed it at first. But by the end of the day it was becoming ridiculous. I finally pushed away from the constant ups and downs around 4 p.m. and ended up in a huge valley just west of the Mississippi river. This is when the sky opened up and sheets of water began to fall from a thunder storm for a few hours. The rain felt great, and we pushed for the Chester Bridge and crossed the Mississippi into Illinois. At the border we noticed statues and pictures of "Popeye the Sailor Man." I love Popeye! The creator of Popeye, Elzie Segar, was born and raised in Chester. The town erected a 6-ft., 900-lb. statue of Popeye along with a board explaining the cartoon’s history in a park named after Elzie on the banks of the Mississippi. It’s the best border crossing of the entire trip thus far. Just over 10 hours on the bike today.