Each posting takes me an hour or more, and costs me sleep. Please check the old posts for when I finally get around to adding pictures. Also, don't expect too many posts from the girls. They take their sleep when they can get it.

Let me know if our mileage log gets off. I am doing this in my head as I drift asleep.

Today was our rest day. I pushed the team hard yesterday and promised them a rest day today. We wanted to see some sites in Nauvoo, and maybe ride 12-15 miles to the next town for the night.

Our hotel last night proved to be one of the more pricey ones, the Nauvoo Motel, at almost $90 per room. Katie was pleased to find that our room was all setup for her when we arrived, with a complementary cot and everything. She was a bit discouraged to discover that we didn't have a bathroom however. The still-open main entry door covered up the bathroom door nicely, but we let her rant for a bit.

We slept in until 7 or 8 and casually had breakfast and Grandpas accross the street. For a bit over $5 we enjoyed a great breakfast buffet, with custom prepared pancakes and french toast. They topped off our OJ until we could hardly walk.

In town we toured a few buildings including a historic home and a blacksmith shop. The people of Nauvoo were very friendly and open about their faith and it's history, and very easy to enjoy listening to. None of these tours cost anything, and are very interesting. The blacksmith even made a horseshoe and gave it to a nearby child.

The MRT route (yeah, we jumped back on that, we don't learn) has some interesting historical stops. This is the underside of a neat old bridge with a waterfall and such under it.

After touring Nauvoo, we decided to head to Hamilton. It was only a few miles, but the tail wind was awesome! In Hamilton, the vote was taken. 3 people wanted to continue, and 2 maybes. The 2 maybes then decided they were up to it. We decided to shoot for quincy, another 50 miles. What a rest day! Nobody could pass up this tailwind.....even though it was already after 3pm!

The road was right by the river!

With the road so close to the water, we were concerned about flooding! The signs warned of other things though.....

At one point, we were heading right at the river, going down fast. We sent roger first, because he was more than willing to go crashing into the water.

Everyone clipped along at 15-18mph, with little effort. The wind held up all day. Laura and Katie were really tired, but the tailwind got them through.

Roger and Katie exchanged jokes, to help her forget how tired her legs were. She made sure to remind her frequently how fast we were riding on our rest day.

We were almost to Quincy, pushed by that tailwind, when we saw this sign. Stopping for a photo was mandatory, even if our bikes wanted to roll forward in the wind.

The wind seemed to pick up, but switched to be mostly from our side. Chucks googley eyed fish sure liked it. It was dead sideways, even though we were going 18mph. Nice job on the flag Amanda!

In quincy, we followed the route, looking for our hotel which was labeled as "on route" in our guidebook. It wasn't. 3 miles of backtracking was needed through town and all uphill to find the place. Oh well. At least we got to ride uber-close to some trains that were moving around. Cool stuff!

The hotel staff was nice enough to let us store our bikes in our room. Recumbents do not store easily, so we put Chuck in charge of this....since he is really good at that traffic jamb game where you slide the blocks around towards an opening.

Okay, that was a room that they were not able to rent, they let us store our bikes in it.

We had a late dinner next door at a really cool Perkins clone. They had refills on lemonaide, and eventually started bringing it by the pitcher. I left barely able to walk. Dumb. Katie is now banned from ordering anything with gravey.......she just makes a mess. Chuck sucked the filling out of his crepes. Roger has been eating a lot of salads (strange). Laura is now eating breakfasts as often as possible. Strange bunch. We were very jovial however, and laughed so hard at dinner that we all felt sick.

Katie did some laundry in the sink tonight. Her clothes bag had apparantly gone sour. She messed up and tossed a pair of wet socks in it. Whoops. Well, she washed some stuff tonight. Hopefully it tries well tonight or she will have the same problem tomorrow.

Anyway, Katie and Laura are fast asleep, and I should be too.

Longest rest day ever...........

60 miles (455 total)
Google Earth File