Day 56: St. Louis, MO to Carlyle, IL

Today's Mileage: 46
Total Mileage: 2926

We began our morning with a calm, lovely ride into downtown St. Louis. The streets were tree-lined, the weather was cool, and the traffic was light.

We arrived at the St. Louis Arch and met up with Larry and Diana Tyler, who we had been staying with two nights before. They were very concerned about our route out of St. Louis because there was no way to avoid the sketchy neighborhoods on the East side of the river. We decided to cross the Mississippi River on bikes, then let the Tylers drive us a few miles farther into Illinois.

Our ride ended in Carlyle, where we found a nice Army Corps of Engineers campground with no available spots. Luckily, there was tons of open space so we set up in an unofficial campsite. We had a little run-in with the rangers, who weren't sure they could allow us to camp where we were, but it wasn't long before our girlish charm won them over. We even got one of them to give us a ride into town. After dinner, we ran into the ranger again at the gas station and convinced him to give us a lift back to the campground. Two other rangers stopped by to chat before we went to bed, and said they would try to get a story in their newspaper about the bike trip. Yay for the Army Corps of Engineers!