Meet Me in St. Louis

Greetings! I bet you're all surprised that I'm already blogging again; usually it's about a week before I can find time/Internet. But I found a library in Washington, MO, so here I am!

Since my last post, we left Greenville, IL and headed to St. Louis, our next big city stop! We encountered some of the country's flooding problems as we were leaving; I'm sure you've heard about it on the news, but we really had no idea the severity of the problem.We encountered side roads completely immersed in water and unable to use; it was crazy.

 

It was a great ride, mostly in the corn fields, but nice nonetheless. We then crossed the old Cross Chain of Rocks bridge into Missouri; the Mississippi was startlingly HUGE and beautiful, and we could see St. Louis from the bridge. We had a great time taking pictures and FINALLY getting a good picture crossing into a state.

We then rode through East St. Louis (not exactly the nicest part of town, but still very interesting to see) and arrived at the University of Missouri at St. Louis (UMSL, or "umsel" as the natives call it), where we would be staying for the next two nights. That evening, I was able to meet up with some old family friends, the Welsh's, who moved to a suburb of St. Louis a few years back. So good to catch up with them! Anna is quite the accomplished artist now, as you can see from her canvas.
 

The next day, the group worked with Rebuilding Together, an affordable housing organization that rehabilitates houses in urban areas to make them safer and more comfortable for their inhabitants (unlike Habitat, who builds all new houses.) I helped paint the kitchen (fun!) and install a sink (really I was just putting braces in, but that sounds better.) Although we weren't on the bike, it was still a long day in the hot sun and we were excited to come back to UMSL to swim at their rec facility.

At night, I ventured to Forest Park with Abby and Kyle to walk around. It's apparently the biggest park in the country, now bigger than Central Park! We had a great time seeing all the sights. We then headed to Delmar Loop, a cool neighborhood of St. Louis where a lot of young people hang out. Also very cool to see!

This morning we returned to our 5 AM (groan) wake-up time to travel to Washington, MO. We rode on the famous Katy Trail right along the Missouri River; it was absolutely beautiful. It was just a great ride overall, and hopefully gave us a bit of a break before tomorrow's 94 miles. 

Corn field pix...typical Bike and Build

On the Katy Trail