st. louis!!

yesterday we started out in salem, illinois. it was a dreary morning. we passed through odin, which boasted a taxidermist, a headstone engraver, and a funeral home. we were almost killed by anthropomorphic, murderous birds in aviston (fortunately we were also able to do this without my needing to alert the group of the danger we were in). we stopped at a really 50s diner in carlyle that played all the greatest hits of the disco era (funky town being tyler's favorite). we built some really impressive towers of creamers and geared up for the rest of the day. the next stop was in o'fallon park where benji made us some sweet lentil burgers (lentils being about 90% of our diet lately), and after some resting we headed onward into the sunset and st. louis. we rode into st. louis over the mississippi river on the eads bridge and triumphantly arrived at the memorial archway, racing down a grassy knoll and leaping from our bikes in joy. we tried to bike up the arch; it was pretty funny. we waded around in the mississippi, which was a little flooded, and then spent a really long time trying to find our final destination. nonetheless, we made it safely, ate a lot of toast, and slept for a long time. now it's morning of the next day, a rest day/reorganize our lives day, and all is well.