6/9 56 81mi 6:41 chester,IL

TOm picked me up around 9:30 and drove me up to festus with all my stuff. There are actually 2 bike shops in festus and I called the emerald city shop and he drove me to the crescent city shop. The guy at the shop didn't have any rims in stock and he called around and no other shops near him did either, He ended up pulling a rim off a biek in the store and selling it to me. Swapped out the cassette and tire and I was ready to go again. I thanked tom and then headed back down to farmington. It was about 30 miles back down to farmington to get back on route with my maps. I wasn't going to go back and reride the 80 miles that I hitchhiked and I am o.k. with missing that little chunk. Stopped in at a ryan's buffet and the manager recognized me from sunday.A nice lady gave me a coupon when I was in line for the buffet and saved me some money. A couple of patrons and waitresses came up and talked to me about my trip because they had over heard me talking about it. I was like a mini-celebrity, it was odd. Took off and was a little ways from the illinios border. The terrain was flat to slightly rolling and I made some good time. I got rained on for about the last hour and a half. Made it there around 6-7 and saw the mississippi river. I walked my bike about halfway across because there was no shoulder and then waited for no cars and pedaled the rest of the way across the bridge. I was wandering around trying to find the eagles club which I heard I could stay at and a guy waved me over to his porch. He was hanging out there with his girlfriend and he asked about my trip. His name was ed and he was a master riverboat captain. He thought that I had warrents in oregon and that was why I was on my trip. He told me not to go to the eagles club because 'it was to political'. He told me to go a bar called the moose further in town. His girlfriend was nice and tried to give me directions to the park and he kept interrupting her. Ed told me that he rode a mtorcycle across the country once, like I was supposed to be impressed of in awe of him or something. Ed was a jackass! Called the eagles club and asked about camping they said it was o.k. and I pulled up a couple minutes later soaked and glad to get a place to stay for the night. I got a shower for $5 and they said I could sleep under the pavillion in th back. I ate a whole fried chicken for dinner for $6 and then had some beers. There was a guy who was watching bowling who bought me a beer which I really appreciated. Actually, I had a lot of beers and closed down the bar at 1a.m. I staggered out to my sleeping pad on a picnic table and fell asleep. happy birthday LIZ!