Great day today...beautiful ride along the river, but between the hilly morning and the heat and the traffic of the afternoon it proved to be a pretty tough, but satisfying, day.  Everyone seemed to be anticipating a challenging day and they got it...but they seemed to enjoy the varying terrain and the views of the river in the early morning.  I got a shot of the sun rising over the river as one of the riders passed by...serene wasn't it?  The state is in the process of putting in a bike lane on 79 but it's only completed for about 10 miles south of Louisiana.  It will be great when they get it finished.

Our route took us along highway 79 almost all the way to St Charles.  There were several times we were able to see the mighty river as it flowed toward our final destination.  I think the water will beat us since we have a couple days off.  The morning portion (the first 30 miles) was very hilly until we got to Louisiana MO where we had our first SAG.  Karen and Clark (right) tried to claim another state as we rode through town, but I explained we would be in Louisiana for real soon enough.  As we rode out of town, we noticed the town of Louisiana had used state names to name all their streets.  A clever rider could have claimed Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Delaware, Maryland, South Carolina, and North Carolina by just riding down Main Street.  I've got to watch them every minute.

After the SAG, the road flattened out for about 20 before getting hilly again before the second SAG.  My legs were a little tired today, probably from riding through all those states at one time, but somehow Karen and I were able to keep our speed over the 20 mark most of the way as we tried to take in the sights while trying not to spend too much time looking at one thing.  Several times we were riding right along the river and other times we could see the hills that ran along the opposite shore, but our road was a couple of miles away from the water.  When we were in the hills, the hardwood trees seemed to be right on the verge of starting to turn their fall colors.  Several scenic overlooks were strategically located along the route and gave a beautiful view of the valley and the river below.  The descent back to the flood plain was a brisk one that allowed me to get my old Roark over 50 MPH again this year.  Once on the level, the road just droned along and seemed to never end as we trudged toward St Charles.