Day 20 Crossing the Mississippi River

I am going to be making this short and sweet again, but today was a very good day!  I think it was one of my best cycling days of the trip.  My legs were loose and my hips were pain free.  Plus, we did not have any substantial hills on the way out so I did not get dropped as fast as I normally do and rode into the sag stops with others. 

The highlight of the day was crossing the Mississippi River.  Why this meant so much, I don't know, but I have always loved the Mississippi and have enjoyed crossing it by car in Vicksburg and the several different times on my trip to Wisconsin in 2005. The bridge over the river was nice and wide compared to the bridge at Greenville, MS/Lake Village, AR.  We also crossed early enough in the morning that there was not much traffic. 

When I got in this afternoon, Susan Reed was already here.  Susan and I met over email thanks to Rob Welch.  We have been emailing each other since March and she really helped me with tips to prepare for this trip!  She and I will cycle to Danville together tomorrow before she heads back to the Chicago area on Monday.

Rebecca H (Lon and Susan's daughter), Paul from Australia, and Mark from Indiana in the sag van after the rain yesterday. 

First view of the Mississippi River from Iowa. Yes, I know it looks the same in Vicksburg and New Orleans, but I just wanted a picture of it!

Mississippi River sign

Bridge we crossed over the river.

Riding on the bridge.

The group was almost all together when we crossed the river into Illinois - the land of Lincoln.  If you ever get to Springfield, the Lincoln museum is fantastic! I visited it on the way back from my Wisconsin cycling trip.

Today's picture of corn.  There are more soybeans in Illinois than there were in Iowa. I'll try to get a picture of them tomorrow.