In contrast to yesterday, today was a great day to be riding from Chicago to St. Louis. The storm front had moved through, the winds had dropped somewhat, and most wonderful of all, their direction had shifted to be from the North, which meant that they helped rather than hindered progress.

The result was that with about the same amount of physical effort as yesterday, I was able to cover 80 miles in the day, bringing the total to 187 miles (300 Km) for the three days and getting us more than half the way home.

So far the body seems to be holding up, and even maybe improving in strength on the uphill climbs.

Bridget once again did a terrific job of scouting the route and being at the key intersections to let me know where I needed to make a turn. We are now solidly on the old Route 66 running parallel to Interstate 55 between towns and then continuing straight through the town as the Interstate bends away to go around the downtown area.

Navigating some of the towns has proved somewhat scary, especially Bloomington / Normal, where the race track one way streets are not a comfortable ride on a recumbent trike.

The worst moment was out on one of the 55 mph limit sections of two lane road, where a Motor Home with a car trailed behind him must have been scared by a cyclist when he was a baby because he barely pulled out enough to pass me, despite there being an entire empty carriageway available to him, and then proceeded to deafen me with his air horns as he was alongside me. Sadly Bridget was nowhere near at the time for me to set her on him!!

Other than this one idiot everyone else in the high speed sections has behaved with wonderful consideration, even if it has meant them slowing to my speed for a few moments to wait for oncoming traffic to pass. All in all a really good day. I don’t have the courage to look at the weather forecast to see what direction the wind will be tomorrow!