April 30

Woke up a 6:00 and had a quick rinse in the shower. Margie made me a bacon cheese omelette, Best omelette I've ever had, It was perfect. Justin was talking about coming over here today and trying out the new gun. It's been three days and they got a nice piece of land and a gun crazy neighbor. I called him up and we decided not to do that, I really wanted to get on the road. I was off at about 8:00, I said my thankyou's and goodbye's to Margie.

Chester, IL is where I crossed the Mississippi into Missouri. I stopped into a country bakery and got a few little loaves of bananna bread. There was a little park with a statue of Popeye right before the bridge. Chester is home of Popeye the Sailor Man. Crossing the bridge was scary, very long no sholder lots of trucks and construction.

It started to pour around noon. I threw on the rain gear and covered all my panniers. It was getting bad and I got fed up a little after Coffman, MO and stopped off at a gazebo behind a church. Changed my clothes and made some mac and cheese, It's still pretty good if you use water instead of milk. It's now almost 6:30 and still raining prett hard. I'm not going anywhere today, very miserable.

I talked to Paul Munda on the phone. Him his girlfriend Rebecca and my brother are going to come to Phoenix for a week during Dana's birthday. It made me happy to talk to him about that. Dana just signed her apartment in Show Low, AZ. It's gonna be great spending time with her there. I like Paul and Rebecca, Dana can't get enough of them either, Paul has this vulgar gangster flair that Rebecca keeps up with and even hits him back with. I know she is really looking forward to their visit. It will be nice to actually do something fun for her birthday. I know last year on her 21st she and her hometown friend Alex wen't to an empty dive bar in princeton IL. I was doing an internship in Freeport and she was stuck pollenating corn. It was a depressing summer. We'll have to make up for that this year. With Paul Rebecca and Michael coming that wont be a problem. If only Jessie could come too, then it would be perfect. Dana loves that crew were kind of an odd tripple Duo.

Mileage: 49

Total: 467