Time and distance
In Marie-Anne's defence she had just woken up this morning when I asked her, "It's 600 km to Poplar Bluff, are you up for that?"
To which she said, "But it won't seem so far because we get an extra hour today".
Is it just me, or are you struggling to detect the logic in that?
She was right about the time, we did "gain" an hour today. We are now on Central Time. I think it happened when we crossed over from Indiana to Missouri, but as Microsoft has just (less than helpfully) locked me out of my account, due to unusual activity, you'll have to check that for yourselves.
Blue sky is a game changer
It really is, everyone's spirits were raised when the clouds finally broke.
Ivan re-set our route to include the first "touristing" event of the trip. A side-ride to Cairo (Kay_row) to see the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
Here's Ivan re-jigging the route:
He found us the most obscure viewing area at the end of a gravel road. Marie-Anne and I scrambled up a flight of weed strewn stairs to peer over a chest-high concrete wall and there it was the Ohio river with all sorts of barges and boats. It was brilliant!
Amazingly, we'd only been there a couple of minutes when another Beemer came tootling up the road.
It was Lee from Lexington, Kentucky, also on his way to the RA BMW rally in Harrison (at this point we are roughly 250 miles from Harrison).
Lee's father had worked his entire career as a mechanical engineer on the boats that move the river barges around so he'd stopped for a moment of nostalgia.
We had Lee take this quick snap of Marie-Anne and I before biding him fairwell with a cheerful "See you at the rally".
Today Cairo is pretty run down (Ivan tells us that coal used to be the big thing around here but the local coal contains high levels of Sulphur, and that's not popular anymore.
Cairo Customs
This grand building is the U.S. Department of Treasury's Cairo Customs House, it took 4-yrs to build and was completed in 1871.
Onward to Poplar Bluff
Leaving Cairo we crossed the majestic Mississippi and rode the final 100 miles in warm, dry, comfort.
Marie-Anne had been cursed with Towes Toes (i.e. Leaky boots) yesterday, so she'd fallen back on the biker's "Red Green" solution of bin bag liners today. You can laugh, but they work!
Standards must be maintained
At the end of the day, with bikes securely stashed under the canopy of another Comfort Inn we finally found time for a spot of civilized pre-dinner snacking, followed by another evening of Fahitas.
A valuable word about chips
No, not the kind you eat, the kind your bank has helpfully embedded in your Canadian Credit card.
The Americans are only just moving to this technology. When all 3 of us had our credit cards "Declined" after dinner Marie-Anne (world traveller, and seasoned shopper) had to give the staff a quick course in the "Slide and tap" technique for processing chip card transactions.
In less time than it takes to say "Declined, you're kidding, I don't believe it" she had them trained up and our bills paid.
The amazed staff, who only moments earlier had been looking at us as if we were con artists, were singing her praises as we left.
Apparently the trick is to slide the card first, then tap the screen with it. Good to know if you are planning a trip to the US any time soon.
Google believes it's only 182 miles from Poplar Bluff to Harrison. But they don't know Ivan!
Check back tomorrow to hear what fiendish plans he had for us.
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