Sand bar campsite to St. Louis Arch (ALMOST) - July 1st

Up and at 'em at 5:30. I will try not to push, but St. Louis is in my sights. Good day today. More wind is at my back and it seems like I'm moving faster. I should be in St. Louis around 6:00.

About three I saw some fishermen fishing from a wing dam and decided to go over to see if they could give me some information on getting out of the water in St. Louis. One of the guys said there was a good place just north of the arch next to a casino boat, except for one problem. It was 4th of July and St. Louis closes the waterfront down so I could not get out. NICE! My first thought was if I'd pushed I'd have been here yesterday and not have had a problem. Next thought was I must re-adjust and react according to the situation. (I do very little planning, but a whole lot of re-adjusting!)

Well, they told of a place I could get out just short of downtown so that was going to be the plan. Get out there and find a motel and go check out the fireworks.

I found the place to get out and got my bike and trailer set up and started out to find a motel. Which I figured couldn't be too far since I was pretty much in downtown St. Louis. I did find a few motels fairly soon, but even at my standards I passed on them and pedaled a few miles farther, until I found an area without iron bars on each business window!

Settled in for the evening and decided not to go out just to see fireworks since I'd have to retrace my steps through the iron bar district at night. Instead I spent a very relaxing evening thinking about all that's happened and looking forward to taking some time off after tomorrow.