Day 10 - O'Fallon to Chester, IL

Day 10
October 13, 2016
53.7 miles today
2072 feet of climbing
(517.4 miles, cumulative)
(10929 feet of climbing, cumulative)


It was the coolest morning yet when we started today in O'Fallon, IL but we had a wonderful tailwind, and it stayed with us all day. The sun came out after a couple hours, and it was a very peaceful and quiet day. (Tailwinds make for an eery and delightful silence when riding.) As soon as we left the city limits of O'Fallon we came upon some horse farms:

Those were followed by more large crop farms:

This tree was majestic standing by itself in the middle of the field:

We wondered whether this small church was still in use. It stood alone among large fields, without many residences visible around it:

The fields were ever-changing in shape and color, and we never tired of looking at them:

We had seen what we thought was a single large, tall smokestack in the distance. As we got closer, we saw that it was three stacks at a coal fired electrical generation plant:

The electrical plant was just outside the town of Baldwin, IL. We stopped at the post office to buy some stamps and have a snack break. The local police officer stopped by to chat with us for about 20 minutes. He asked where we were going,and we said, "Chester, tomorrow, and we're going to cycle over that narrow bridge over the Mississippi." He immediately suggested that we call the Chester police and ask for an escort over the bridge.

The tailwind had left us in very good spirits:

One more church struck our fancy as we left Baldwin:

Back on farm roads we fell in behind some large farm machinery. It turned off into this farmyard:

These next two photos are especially for grandson Ross who loves anything John Deere, and anything yellow:

When we arrived in Chester and checked in at the Best Western, I rode the unloaded tandem to a pizza place for some supper. On the way I stopped at the police station and asked about the idea of an escort in the morning over the bridge. The officer was friendly and said, "Oh yeah, we do that four or five times per week." So tomorrow we'll call when we get to the visitor centre at the end of the bridge and wait for an officer to arrive.