I said that about 90 times today because, as I predicted, it finally hit me when we saw the arch in St. Louis, the gateway to the west, that we are actually going from coast to coast. Okay. Cheesy rant - over.
Started out the day in a weird mood because leader stuff and personal stuff and blegh, so I just wanted to ride my bike and not think all day. Hopped in a group that was riding rather fast for a day with such strong winds, and dangerously fast for the recovery my leg is going through, so about 12 miles in I decided to pull off and wait for another group. I ended up riding the rest of the way to lunch with Ashton, Joyce, and Julia. I don't have favorite folks to ride with, but these three are angels. We went the perfect pace, had some meaningful conversations, laughed a lot, and made it safely to lunch. 
Throughout the ride, we crossed paths with a bunch of Race Across America folks. They're biking across the country too, but from West to East, with far less sleep, at far higher speeds, and in far fewer days. They're pretty crazy folks. Anyways, as they passed we would cheer them on and make a scene. A few of them would wave and cheer for us in return (as well as the folks in the support van behind them) and it was cool to see everybody lovin on everybody just because we like riding bicycles. 
Right when we got to lunch, my injured leg was starting to fatigue out. I stayed about an hour icing and resting my leg decidingif I could finish the day. (One of my big goals was to ride across the Mississippi, but a bigger goal is to make it all the way to the Packfic, so a huge inner debate was going on in my head about what was best). Dan and Christine offered to ride with me in the back, the sweeps for the day were super patient and let me ice my leg a bit longer, and then we headed out.
Riding with Dan and Christine was awesome because I knew they would prefer for me to have rested and stayed healthy, but they seemed to understand how badly I wanted to finish the day so they helped me through it. It's the most supported I've felt all trip and I had super sentimental and cheesy feelings we won't go into. Additionally, it's the first time the three of us rode together since the leader shakedown ride, so it was fun to hang out and just have some leader time together. (I love our whole team, but ever since the riders showed up, I've kind of neglected my leaderfriends). 
Again, my leg fatigued out about two miles from host. I made it all the way back, but had to crutch the rest of the evening to rest it/avoid putting too much weight on it. It's a weird balance but I guess you've got to ride before you walk? (Crawl before you run? Baby steps?)
After a delicious Olive Garden donated dinner, a bunch of us went downtown to see the arch (we all lined up and licked it. See picture of pre lick), and play around. Our host is super far away so we used the metro system, and I relied on piggy back rides and got a great shoulder workout as we adventures blocks on blocks on blocks of the city.
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