Indianapolis to St. Louis

Well today was a short but interesting day.  It turns out that the decision to sleep in the Walmart parking lot last night in 15 degree weather was not one of my best.  I was bundled up in my sleeping bag and a wool blanket, but the cold still bit through.  As a result I ended up waking up every hour to let the truck run and warm up the cabin  a little bit.  In the process I ended up guzzling over a quarter tank of gas, or the nearly the price of a cheap motel room.  I had planned on making it to Kansas City today to stay with an extended family member, however I was unable to make it on 3 hours of terrible sleep.  60 miles into the drive today the tarp that I was using to cover the bikes and gear in the truck bed came loose, and it almost flew off on I-70.  I pulled over and attempted to re-tape it, but the strong winds rendered me unable to do so.  A few minutes into fiddling with it, a kind Illinois State Trooper pulled up behind me and helped me remove it entirely and store it inside the truck.  During a day of constant driving it's hard to predict when you may encounter rain, so I knew I had to get the tarp reattached as quickly as possible to avoid damage.  Luckily for me, the first exit I took into a very rural town with a population of only 3,000 people contained a large mechanic's shop - and not much else.  The shop was technically closed, but they were having some sort free customer appreciation breakfast.  They were nice enough to hear my story, and then they offered to help.  I pulled the truck in one of the garage bays and literally everyone in the shop came over to help.  I spent about 30 minutes with these guys trying to figure out the best method of securing the tarp to the truck, as well as telling them about my cross-country road trip and subsequent bike trip back.  After getting the tarp on I asked them what I owed them and they said "nothing, keep it for your travels", and refused all attempts I made to give them cash.  I am elated that I received such kindness from strangers that could have turned me away at the door.  A big thanks to Tim, Rob, and everyone else at BEI auto shop!  

 With my once again attached tarp I made my way to St. Louis.  Before checking into a motel for the evening I took a little tour of downtown, and I have to say I think I'm in love with this city.  It's hard to compare to any other city I've been to, but perhaps that's because that short list of cities pretty much starts and ends at New York.  St. Louis is clean and lovely.  The traffic there (granted this was at 3pm on a Saturday) was non-existent.  It's not overwhelming like NYC, and certainly isn't disgusting.  I had no problem maneuvering the large truck through this place, and was even able to drive right up to the home of the current World Champions and take a picture.  The truck was parked closer to the stadium then I was in this picture!  You can't do anything like that in shitty Baltimore.