Troy to White River, Il

This is June 12th. I'm writing for yesterday. We road mostly bike trails past enormous farms but as we move closer to St Louis we see some farms for sale with the intent to build new homes. We've seen some of these new subdivisions occasionally. Still the traffic is mostly sparse on the roads we choose. We rode in the morning to Cahokia Indian grounds. This is the biggest Indian site North of Mexico. The visitor center was closed but it was nice to see the enormity of the mounds that were built over a 1000 years.  Afterwards we ate at a little while in the wall Mexican place. It was as authentic as I have ever had. Yum. Mole! Steven arranged a warm showers visit for the night and we headed out over the amazing bike trail network North to White River. Oh, before we met up with the trail on the hot side of a main road, guess who got a flat, and on the rear wheel too. We changed it considerably quickly and off we went. A Warm Showers host is a fellow bicycle rider who offers traveling bike riders a place to camp on their property or a room in their house. We stayed a Dave and Cindy's house, at there little apartment attached to their house. Just prior to arriving I noticed that my sidewall in my new tire had burst. I needed a new tire. Dave gave me a ride to the bike shop. Peggy came too and we also got a tour of this community whose centerpiece is a massive oil refinery. We drove by the Louis and Clark center and a street lined with turn of last century mansion. Dave and Cindy had a barbeque for us and we all had nice conversation including Dave's home made beer.