The Road to St. Louis

So while Anna and I made the most of our one night in Cape Girardeau Missouri taking our inner tubes for a dip in the pool and feasting on Mexican, we also met some locals who warned us off our planned route up to St Louis through the mountains due to dangerous road conditions.

 We took their advice and on Sunday the 20th we headed north on the 61 to St Louis, which is actually part of the Mississippi River Trail bike route. It was a blazing hot and we ended you stopping just 40 miles or so up the road at Perryville MO, enjoying lunch at the City Tavern and bunking down for the night at the camp grounds. That night we saw our first night of continuous rain. 

Lucky for us, the next morning was overcast but reasonably rain-free; perfect riding conditions. We stopped in beautiful little Ste. Genevieve MO on the Mississippi for a morning snack. We pushed on and made it about 70 miles to Festus MO. Worried about the looming rain predicted for the night we weren't to keen on pitching our tents in the park so lucky for us we ran into Jim who offered to host us at his place. A dry night inside and a warm shower was just what the doctor ordered after a day of wet cycling. 

In the morning we bid farewell to our hosts and began our 35 mile ride into down town St Louis.As we got closer to downtown the bike friendliness of St Louis became more and more apparent, with bike lanes aplenty and "bikes may use full lane" signs. Needless to say I was in Heaven :) Hello Midwest !!! We have arrived. 

Hills and Heat...

After our four day stint in Nashville we hit the road again on the 14th of July headed north. We were lucky enough to get a lift out of Nashville and back onto our route to avoid some back tracking. We made it to our camp site, a cute little place on the 79 in Tennessee called Whispering Pines.

The next day we continued north through The Land Between the Lakes National Recreation area following the Tennessee River. We crossed our fourth border into Kentucky by midday and headed for our campsite for the night on the Kentucky Lake at Hillman Ferry. It was a pretty place to camp and we even managed to have a dip and watch the sunset over the lake -- though the local racoons did manage break one of my tent poles :/

On the 16th we ventured further north through western Kentucky, following the Ohio river through some beautiful countryside. It was pretty hot this day and we stopped in to some local houses near Birdsville to ask for some water to refill our bottles and ended up camping the night there. 

The 17th saw our fifth border crossing into Illinois as we crossed the Ohio River by ferry to the town of Cave in Rock. We checked out the famous Cave in a Rock which supposedly used to be used by crooks and thieves as a hideaway. There was one famous tale of a man who put up a sign that read "House of  Liquor and Entertainment" and used it to lure travelers and boat crews in so he could rob them. Though now it is just a large hole in a rock covered in graffiti, but it's interesting to think of the bygone uses it once had. This was also the day of the beginning of the "heat wave" everyone kept telling us about, though Anna and
I are coming to believe that summer in middle America is just one big heat wave :)

On the 18th we set out into the heat making it over 60 miles to or destination in Karnak Illinois. We met some nice locals who let us shack up in the rental house they are renovating and even use their pool. We had a much needed dip after an exhausting day in the 100 degree heat before retiring to our own little house Anna even had her own room :)

Today we made it just under 50 miles to Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi River crossing into Missouri, our sixth border crossing. We will rest up for the night here before we begin our ascent to Saint Louis through the Ozark Mountains and beyond.

Music City ...

After stuffing ourselves silly with biscuits at the Loveless Cafe, we hitched a ride with a gun slinging old cowboy named Rus who took us the 20 or so miles into downtown Nashville.

Once in Nashville we crashed out on our first night, exhausted by our journey up the trace and having made it over 550 miles so far. Go us !!

While in Nashville we checked out the local music scene on Broadway and in Printers Alley. We hit up the Hatch Show Print shop, one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America. On our bus trip to the outdoor shop to get supplies we experienced some flash flooding. Our Couchsurfing host Oscar took us on a tour of his workplace, the United Record Press. And we even made it on to a local satellite radio station, Sirius XM, for some shameless self promotion.

Over all Nashville has been a fun little interlude to the riding part of our trip.

Taking the Trace North part two ...

Leaving Tupelo on the 6th of July we headed towards our second border crossing into Alabama. We camped for the night at Colbert Ferry. Taking a well deserved dip in the Tennessee River after a 60 mile day.

The next day we road over our third border crossing into Tennessee having only clipped the north west corner of Alabama. We road another 55 miles up the trace taking in some of the lovely Tennessee country side to our campsite for the night at Meriwether Lewis.

On the 9th we had a short but mighty hot day as we headed into the little town of Fly Tennessee for a rest stop and ended up spending the night. Upon arrival we were greeted by some of the friendly locals hanging at the general store. Wilson the owner helped us out with camping spots and made us some awesome cheese sambos.

In the morning we continued on our last and hilliest leg of the trip. We made it to the end of the trace by lunch time and hit the Loveless Cafe for a mountain of their delicious biscuits before we headed into Nashville.

Taking the Trace north part one ...

We started our trip up the trace with a spot of lake camping, sleeping under the stars on the boat dock in the Natchez State Park on our first night. We then headed for Rocky Springs, about 50 miles north of the state park on the Trace. We camped there for the night and used our tents for the first time, providing a mozzie free sleep. The next day we continued north, stopping in Port Gibson to find some lunch then heading on just north of Jackson to Ridgeland, where we had our first park camping experience at Old Trace Park by the reservoir.

The next day my shoulder was giving me some trouble so we decided to have a rest day, only doing about 25 miles to Ratliff Ferry before camping for the night. Little did we know there was going to be a huge concert that night featuring a popular "country rap" band. Go figure.

On the fourth of July we hightailed it out of there and up the trace another 65 miles to Jeff Busby camp ground where we celebrated the Fourth of July by having a few swigs of rum with Rick, a motorcycle camper from New Orleans, and listening to the fireworks go off in the distance from our tents.

Last night we rode another 60 miles north on the Trace and stayed at the Davis Lake camp grounds in the Tombigbee National Forest. It was nice to have a shower even if it did cost 20 bucks. And the people at the camp ground were all so lovely, coming over one by one to meet us and offer us fruit, water and PIE!!!! Yes pie ! Mitts had promised me that there would be offerings of pie throughout the South and so far nothing, but by jeez it finally happened! :)

So we have made it just over halfway up the Natchez Trace. Shacked up in Tupelo, MS (the birthplace of Elvis) for the night at our first couchsurfing spot with our hosts Mo and Addie. And tomorrow we continue north on the Trace, Nashville bound.