Day 47 - St Louis MO to Hamel IL

Today was a jam packed day. Originally it was going to be talks and a rest day but I needed to get to Bloomington Indiana earlier so decided to give my talks then ride into the evening. Luckily I had good weather -- coolish to start then it got warmer.

After departing my classmate's house, I inadvertently ended up on Route 66 again.

My presentation to 150 or so kids at the Grand Center Arts Academy in St Louis went extremely well. Here are some of the kids posing with me after my talk.

I visited the Green Machine class room where they were raising vegetables...

...and succulents...

...and hydroponics...

...and a turtle.

Here is Cassandra the biology teacher lead for the Green Machine at the Grand Center Arts Academy and just an all around fantastic person! I ended up doing 3 talks at the Academy -- the large one in their auditorium, her Green Machine class and an AP Biology class.

Afterwards I bounced around St Louis to see some sights including the Gateway Arch.

The river trail near the arch was flooded a bit.

But there were many barges still using the Mississippi.

I bumped into Haley and Ryan, a biking family, with their daughter who loves turtles :-)

They also gave me a fantastic recommendation for lunch -- Bailey's Range -- all local sustainable food served in a sustainable manner.

Bailey's Range has the best onion rings and I also enjoyed a delicious chicken asian-fusion sandwich.

Bike share bikes seem to be disappearing but there were Bird and Lime electric scooters.

There is a lot of great public art in St Louis.

And people walking dogs. Alas I stepped in a "gift" right after taking this picture :-(

Afterwards I saw encountered some bike station signs and visited Big Shark Urban Bikes. 

It's a great bike shop!

With fantastic people! Here are Jake (?) and Alan.

On the way to visit a friend of a friend, I buzzed by the St Louis Public Library...

...then arrived a Karen Karabell's house. Karen is a friend of John Allen in Boston. John is helping me arrange a ride with the Charles River Wheelers when I get to Boston and he recommended I contact Karen while in St Louis.

Karen and her husband Harold are wonderful biking people. I had a great conversation with them even though they were busy unpacking and decompressing from a trip they had just finished. I also helped them lift their chipper/mulcher into their back yard :-)   They are both League Cycling Instructors and Cycling Savvy Instructors.

Around 5pm I arrived at the KDHX studios for my evening radio interview.

Nat the bartender helped me by taking my banana peels to compost at his home.

KDHX is an amazing place with its bar and live stage.

Jean Ponzi and her recording engineer Andy welcomed me and then we recorded a podcast for her show Earthworms. The podcast should be posted in the next week or so.

After the podcast recording, I headed back out on the road for a 30 mile ride to Hamel Illinois.

Lots of flowering trees out now.

After going through an industrial section, I got to the McKinley bridge bike trail.

Yet another barge on the Mississippi as I crossed the mighty river.

I ended up back on Route 66 for a bit.

But then left it to ride a many more trails to Hamel including the Madison County Nickel-Plate Trail and the Quercus Grove Trail. Such fantastic paved trails away from cars!

I saw lots of deer and rabbits in this evening ride.

I also had to make my way through and around some construction (bicyclists can go where no cars can dare go) but when I ran into this closed segment near Hamel I decided to leave the trail and...

...pop back onto historic Route 66 yet again into Hamel, IL.