I got up at 8 am, what I thought was an early start. All the other tents had been packed except one, Ryans. He made it into camp at midnight riding a monster 138 miles.
The Trans-America trail continues west from Chester heading through the Ozarks. However, After realizing we were only 65 miles south of St. Louis we headed up to take in the city and meet up with oir friend Nick from New York.
I ran into TransAm Nick while eating breakfast at subway. He is the spindly 20 year old from PA we met in a Kentucky campground a week back. As luck would have it he was heading to St Louis as well so we decided to ride up together.
This was the firs time that I was riding with a person other than Ryan and Ryan and I rarely ride together, keeping different paces and stopping for different reasons. After about five miles I had pulled ahead of Nick and into the strongest headwind I've experienced. I could swear the stalks of corn on the side of the road were bent. i struggled to get the odometer up above 9 mph.
Large ominous clouds swallowed up the blue sky, being pushed foreward by gusts of wind. Just as I thought it would pour I stopped for a soda. I came back outside to hear nick quip "that was crazy"
We got back on the road together and Nick offered to take lead. We began drafting off of each other trading lead each mile and started making better time. The storm clouds passed us by and in their wake gave us a pretty strong tailwind. In an instant Nick and I were cruising at 23 mph, sharing the work all the way up to St. Louis.
We got lost in East St. Louis, something locals joke about because its a rough neighborhood. It didn't take long before we were back on track up on Eadds bridge riding over the Mississippi river and into Missouri, our ninth state of the trip. The silver arch soared high above the downtown buildings on our left.
In St. Louis we decided to spend the night at the Huck Finn Hostel in the hip neighborhood of Soulard. The hostel was dorm style with bunk beds and had the look of an old man flop house more then place catering to young backpakers. The mattress I slept in bowed down a foot in the middle.
Nevertheless, we did meet Franzie a German woman living in Carbondale and her younger brother Alex at the hostel. They were staying in the city for a few nights. Nick drove in and we all went out to eat at a local resaurant and then spontaneously decided to catch a Cardinals game.
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Location:Russell Blvd,St Louis,United States
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