Day 12: Saurday, May 19, 2019, Union City, Tennessee to Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Map of today's ride:

Distance of Today's Ride: 92.7 miles

Trip Total Distance: 832.0 miles

Elevation Gain:  2175 feet

Riding Time:  5:59 hrs:mins

Today we bicycled in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri. We are spending the night in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and will be bicycling in Missouri for the next five days. The road surfaces in Kentucky and Missouri (so far) are as good as in Tennessee; however, the hills and grades experienced today in Missouri are very very steep!

Today's 92.7 mile ride was the hardest we have experienced this trip. This was due to the day being very hot, and we ran out of energy between the first SAG stop at 19.1 miles and the second stop at 68.9 miles --- 49.5 miles apart! That is too long without food on rides with the conditions we experienced today.  In addition, the last 20 miles today had some extreme grades to climb.

We started our morning watching the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.  Last night, Nick Pannaman, from the UK provided everyone with a Royal Wedding pin to wear today.  It was a neat to watch the vows of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex with four London riders.  Today, Nick and Tim, both of London sported their British biking jerseys.

An overview of Kentucky shortly before we rode a ferry across the Mississippi River to Missouri.  This picture was taken from a park vantage point in Hickman, KY.  Hickman is a town on the Mississippi River totaling 3.6 square miles.

We entered Kentucky this morning 12.2 miles into our ride.

Our support vans and all 26 bicyclists waiting for the ferry to cross The Mississippi River from Kentucky to Missouri.

The ferry ride across the Mississippi River was about 25 minutes long.  An individual ferry rider is charged $1.00 and a person with a bicycle was charged $2.00. The ferry pretty much runs by demand, so the number on the sign was called to arrange the ferry crossing. 

This is a picture of 13 riders and our bicycle mechanic (third individual from the right) on the ferry as we were heading to Missouri.

The welcome to Missouri sign as we left the ferry.

This is an example of a road in Missouri. We climbed the hill to where the picture was taken. Coming down the hill in the distance, we hit 35 mph just by coasting, and coming up the hill required our lowest gears.  Several people with Garmin devices measured the hill's grade at 16%. (Note the car at the bottom of the hill.)

Unfortunately, tonight we will be losing a husband and wife team from the Tucson area.  Bill had an accident two miles from the hotel tonight.  He was on a trail and crossed through some mud when he lost his balance.  He broke his collarbone in four places.  Tonight he is back at the hotel.  We will say goodbye tomorrow at breakfast.  Hopefully, Dad and I will be able to reconnect with Daun and Bill in Tucson this fall.  We send him our best wishes for a speedy recovery!