A great night sleep on a futon in the lounge of the Byrd family home, with just a minor blip of a call from a Britsail student, but hey, we still do have a business to run. We enjoyed an amazing breakfast in the company of a family full of energy for the day. Everyone had their schedule set around enjoying breakfast together, with mom first through breakfast and out if the door in full cycling attire ready for her 10-mile cycle to work. A few minutes to chat with Michael about his architecture firm, while Lyra and Carlos started to mobilize for school and college. With breakfast cleared away, we started to pack the bikes up as Lyra gave Carlos a lift to school, while Michael for ready for work. By the time we were packed, Lyra had returned and Michael was heading out to work. Lyra had a late start, so it was Lyra we said our final goodbye to as we cycled down their suburban street.
It was so nice to spend a short time with the wonderful Byrd family and we do hope we see them in Scotland one day. PHOTO OF TEAM BYRD TO FOLLOW…
First stop of the day was a detour to a branch of US Bank. They do Western Union and they have enough money to do our Visa Encashment. Unfortunately, they only support Western Union transaction for account holders but directed us across the road to the PNC Bank. Western Union number 27 and another failed attempt at accessing our USD funds.
Leaving Deborah outside with the bikes, I was greeted with a big smile by Chris, the Branch Manager. Was this going to be out luck day? Unfortunately, it was quickly confirmed that PNC Bank doesn’t do Western Union. Hearing our plight Chris showed me to a conference room and called another Western Union branch, but that also confirmed they could only support small transactions. Chris allowed me to stay in the room to call Visa. A full hour later, during which time having phoned an undisclosed number of Western Union branches themselves, Visa confirmed there were no Western Unions in St Louis that could support the transaction and little chance of any other branches being able to support it as we head out into more rural areas. So what does Visa suggest…? Call your bank and see if they can help you.
By this time Chris had shown Deborah and our bikes into the bank as the day was starting to warm up. While outside Deborah had a chat with a fellow tour cyclist, Jim. Jim offered his help and has since even offered to drive us along the route to catch up time due to the time wasted in banks.
The generosity of strangers continues to be one of the most notable elements of this adventure so far. Out of options on how to access our USD funds, Chris walked me to the ATM and I begrudgingly popped my GBP card into the ATM, wording the complaint and financial claim in my mind that I will be filing against HSBC when I get back to the UK while doing so. So much for being an HSBC Premier customer!
We were now a couple of hours behind schedule so we pushed on as hard as you can on bikes that weigh the same as a small country.
The flat roads of Illinois were definitely behind us as the road took us on long uphills and fast downhills, through the suburbs of St Louis. The roadkill was also different now. We still had the usual raccoons and snakes, frogs and squirrels, but we’re now seeing more deer and armadillos. A grizzly sight for anyone, never mind two squeamish veggies.
Heading into Eureka we enjoyed the benefit of a few long up hills with a glorious 3 mile downhill through the wooded shade of the Meramec Trail.
We passed through Eureka, trying a supermarket brand (Schnucks) for a Western Union that had been suggested by a lady behind the counter of a previous failed Western Union attempt while stocking up on sports drinks. FAIL# 28!
Much of the remainder of the day was along the service road of Interstate 44, the road that forms our rhumb line for much of the next 2000 miles.
The going wasn’t particularly fast as our summer sailing legs started to feel the lack of any practice runs, but we slowly passed the towns of Pacific, Grey Summit and Villa Ridge, as we progressed toward the endpoint for the day, the Super 8 in St Clair.
In a service station on the outskirts of Pacific, we got talking a chap, James, after his car alarm went off giving us a start as we sat beside it slurping a couple of brain freezers. He lives in the town of Lebanon, a town that we will be passing through in a couple of days. We had only talked to him for 5 minutes when he offered us a bed for the night if our end of day coincides with us passing through his town… what did I say a short time ago? It truly is humbling.
The final hour of the ride became a race against the setting sun, but we made it just in time to see a glorious sunset from our motel window. We dined on whatever we could find in our panniers, which wasn’t much, in the knowledge of the free breakfast in the morning.
Having put in a reasonable number of miles on our first hill filled day, with a late and frustrating start, we made the most of a comfy bed and had an early night, looking forward to a good ride out to Rolla tomorrow.