Today Anne and I attended the grand opening of the Mckinley Bridge bicycle path.  The Mckinley spans the Mississippi about two miles north of the Arch.  The bridge was named not for William Mckinley the US President but for William Mckinley president of the Illinois Traction System, the railroad company that built the bridge in 1910.  The Mckinley bridge was eventually converted to a road bridge in 1958, but then was eventually closed for safety reasons in 2001.  The road part of it reopened in 2007.  The Mckinley is now the fourth bicycle crossing on the Mississippi in St. Louis. 

We launched at 10:30 and it was already 84 degrees.  We had a tailwind as we cruised toward downtown.  We hit the waterfront, literally, the river was flooding the road.  We headed north to the bridge opening.  We arrived in time to make it across to IL, but were trapped by the opening ceremonies while returning.  The wind was blowing very stiffly up the river as we stood listening to the politicians.  So all in all it was cool.  At one point while one of the speakers was looking for the next speaker he made the joke about them being out of wind.  This got a good laugh, but they eventually found their second wind.  Throughout the speeches the MO politicians would step across the state line and stand on the IL side.  The IL politicians reciprocated.  Afterwards we had root beer floats at one of the booths on the bridge.  Another booth was offering smoothies made in a bicycle powered blender, but it was mobbed.

We turned towards home.  Our tailwind was now a headwind.  It was a hard slog home, but we made it.  Even though the high for today is only 92 degrees, the heat index is 103.  Anne is now in the ICU, the Intensive Couch Unit.  Maybe we should have taken Metro-Link back home, but we did get 26 miles.