Hopkins 4K for Cancer

June 17, 2003

A Taste of St. Louis!
Day 17

Day off in St. Louis, MO



Today’s day off was the third of the trip, and everybody was excited to experience all that St. Louis had to offer. After the thrill of riding across the Mississippi River the day before, we were all recharged by a good night’s rest on comfortable beds in the Four Seasons Sheraton Hotel. Some of us who were lucky got to wake up to a spectacular view of the St. Louis Arch, which was also known as the Gateway to the West. This day was very significant to us because we just crossed the 1000-mile mark for this trip. Another 3000 miles and we will be in San Francisco!



We would have been glad just to lie in our comfy hotel beds till 12 noon, but we had to wake up early in the morning as we had some activities planned for us. We went to City Hall to hand out information about cancer awareness to people who were just hanging around or taking a breather from work. Meredith’s mom brought us lots of fruit and bagels for breakfast, and many of us took the opportunity to take lots of photos of St. Louis while waiting for a representative of the mayor to come. He proclaimed today, the 17th of June, to be Ann E. McEnroe Pancreatic Cancer Memorial Day, and presented our two trip directors, Rich and Meredith, with a plaque. After all the formalities, we took a photograph with the mayor’s representative and Jim McEnroe, one of our biggest sponsors, at City Hall. Then, in a sudden moment of madness, Matt and Gloria decided to jump into the fountain to take a photograph with the statue of a running man, and before you knew it, everybody was in the fountain, with our spandex shorts drawn up so that we could keep our apparel relatively dry. We didn’t even seem to care that everybody was staring at us with this incredulous look in the eyes, and I guess that’s what this trip is all about—making a fool of yourself with 23 equally crazy people.



Josh, Renee, Gloria and I got everyone some lunch donated from an Indian restaurant and Quizno’s, and after that, some of us headed off to Maplewood Bike Shop to get some bike maintenance done before we hit the Katy Trail tomorrow. The Katy Trail is a gravel bike path, and it is important that our bikes are in tip-top condition before we tackle it. The mechanics offered us free labor and a 10% discount on all merchandise, which was awesome. I had to get my front wheel trued after all the battering my bike took. I also got a pair of new gloves to replace the ones that I ripped when I fell yesterday. One mechanic advised us to clean our chains thoroughly after riding through the Katy Trail tomorrow, as the fine dust trapped within the chain links could mess up all our gears if left unattended. Thank you everyone from Maplewood Bike Shop. We wouldn’t have made it through the Katy Trail without you guys.



After leaving the bike shop, we rushed back to the hotel so that we would have time to go up the Arch. The ride up the Arch was only $5, and it was definitely worth it. After sitting in a space-capsule like elevator, we got a bird’s eye view of the city, and that was just breathtaking. After coming down the Arch, we took a lot of pictures, and we would have stayed there longer if we didn’t have to head over to Emily’s house for dinner. We didn’t complain too much though, because Emily’s parents served up a really sumptuous dinner. By the time we got to St. Louis’ famous frozen custard, we were so full that we could hardly move.



After dinner, we had to be present at an art gallery, where they were going to auction off the 1996 Atlanta Olympics Cycling posters which we had signed the night before. There wasn’t a very huge turnout, though. However, Matt was unbelievably lucky as he got to speak to a guy who was in charge of designing posters for huge sporting events like the Olympics, and this guy gave him an entire set of posters for the Winter Olympics. They were really beautiful. He told us to take lots of pictures on this trip, because he was looking for some good biking photos with America’s landscape in the background. Maybe if we are lucky, we will see our photos in the next Olympics. Emily’s dad then offered to fly us over the city in his plane. We were extremely overjoyed because one person in each group also got the chance to be the co-pilot. It was a shame that he could only bring 3 people at one time because the weight limit was 600 pounds, so by the time we were all done, it was really late. The view, however, was fantastic, and the thought that we have a long 123 mile day tomorrow didn’t even trouble us at all. Immediately after getting back to the hotel, we went to sleep, extremely exhausted by the day’s events. Who would have thought that a day off would be as exhausting as a full day of riding?



Weijie