Day 12 - Vicksburg Battlfield and drive home to Peoria

Since we would not be pedaling on this final day, we tried to select items appropriate for sitting in the van from the continental breakfast; this is not an easy transition.  At the Vicksburg National Military Park visitor center we learned that the GPS driven tour guide devices we hoped to use were not functional due to a recent lightning storm.  However, we obtained a CD that provided excellent explanations at many, many sites around the 16 mile long battlefield tour.  It was fairly easy to sync our location to the explanations spewing from the CD.  The park is huge and has hundreds of monuments.  The battle lines were extremely long an it is difficult to grasp the role of each area visited.  It is abundantly clear how courageous and dedicated those who fought here were.  There were over 36000 soldiers who fought at Vicksburg from Illinois alone.  This image shows the Illinois monument; all units, their members, and numbers killed and wounded are listed inside.

Don found the name of his great grandfather on the Wisconsin Monument.

Near the waterfront is an excellent museum dedicated to the Union battleship Cairo.  The Cairo was sunk by a crude mine and was submerged in the river for over 100 years.  When raised it was loaded with artifacts.  The boilers, steam engines, and paddle wheel were well preserved.  It is an extremely well done museum!

The park tour is very educational and humbling; it was time well spent.  Vicksburg was a key stronghold.  Thousands were killed or wounded here in the quest to preserve the union.

After touring the battlefield and museum we hit the road for home at about 10:30 AM.  Having decided en route to forgo another night in a motel, we pushed on to Peoria, arriving at bout 11:30 PM.

Our ride from Edgington, IL to Vicksburg, MS was a very good one.  My calculations show that I pedaled about 860 miles.  We had some windy days, some rainy ones, and some hot ones, but in retrospect they were all good ones!  We are blessed!

Day 11 - A little south of Greenville, MS to Vicksburg, MS

Having seen a great deal of the Mississippi delta farmland getting to Rosedale, MS, and having the flexibility of choosing our starting and stopping points in contrast to touring company sponsored rides, we decided to ride in the van over about 50 miles of the flat farmland before beginning our pedaling on Day 11.  This would enable us to arrive at Vicksburg on Day 11 rather than on Day 12 as originally planned. 

So we found ourselves in front of Roy's Store on the corner of none other than Roy's Store Rd. and E Washington Lake Rd. From left to right are Emiel, John, Bill, Ken Z, Don, Tom, and Ken McG.  Roy's store was a very interesting place full of antiques including what appeared to be a huge bolt or cable cutter with rack and pinion gearing that was born in Urbana, Illinois in some previous age.  Oh the variety of restrooms we encountered on our adventure!  Ken Z peeked into a shower in a restroom we would visit later on this day and found a snake at least two feet long.

We began our pedaling along beautiful Lake Washington.  It is apparently a back water lake occupying what was formerly the main channel of the Big Muddy.  Initially the water lay like a sheet of glass on this gorgeous day with "Mary sky".  What a true blessing to begin this last day of riding under such beautiful conditions. Many home on the lake were plush, with manicured lawns and well maintained docks in the lake - not at all like the conditions we encountered in small towns we rode through.

A pair of simultaneous flats slowed us a little along the lake.  Mine was due to a thorn that pierced the sidewall.  Several stately homes that appeared to be plantation houses lined the lake.  This one was well maintained and had a great view of the lake.  Another I saw was falling into disrepair.

After reaching SH 465, on which we would ride our final 39 miles, we took a lunch break at this old cemetery.  Judging from the holes I saw, it appeared that armadillos were trying to get a closer look at the residents.  Speaking of these armored creatures, they were now the primary victims of roadkill. Except for a big but too slow beaver, we saw only lots of flattened shells over our Mississippi miles.

Leaving the cemetery we climbed up a levee an stayed there for many a mile.  We saw a lot of work underway to improve the levee, but could not figure out just what the nature of the improvements were.  We did see large portions of the levy apparently sinking or sliding down.  The most exciting thing, in a negative way, about the levee were the way too frequent cattle guards.  They were totally bone and bike rattling - much more so than those out West.  I realized after crossing several that one of my water bottles had been shaken out and was missing.  Unfortunately, I could not find it at the most recent crossing and I was not about to recross twice many of them in search of it.

Continuing down SH 465 we saw lots of soybean and corn fields that looked very similar to Illinois, except of course for the armadillo carcasses.  The temperature rose steadily to the mid 90s covered the final miles, most of which were through bottomland forest with lot of slough areas.

We ended our 76 mile final day at the intersection of SH 465 with busy US 61, but not before Bill's second flat rang out like a whistling gunshot.  We loaded into the van for our ride to Vicksburg.

We were fortunate to find another nice restaurant, Rusty's on the Riverfront.  We had a great meal, but began to realize that our days of feasting for fuel were ending and that we would now have to relearn to reign in our appetites.

After dinner, as the sun set on our final day of riding, we did some exploring of downtown Vicksburg.  Some time after the Civil War, the meandering Mississippi moved to the west and away from Vicksburg.  To maintain a waterfront, the Yazoo River was rechanneled and now occupies the bed that was once Big Muddy.  The tall flood wall has been nicely decorated with murals depicting history of the area.  Some of the downtown improvements are no doubt partially financed by the local casino gambling boat.

Tomorrow we will visit the Vicksburg Battlefield and then head for home.  Hopefully tomorrow I can put together some final statistics.

Day 10 - Prichard, MS to Rosedale, MS

The sun was rising over wide cotton fields loaded with cotton balls as we left our Tunica, MS hotel in the van.  We drove back to Prichard to continue our southward pedaling.  Straight and flat asphalt took us through miles of farm fields.  We saw mostly soybeans and cotton crops.  Many farmers seemed to be using beans that were not RoundupReady, because there were lots of weeds in many of the fields. 

We modified our route when our first scheduled turn was on to a road we discovered was gravel.  As we passed it, I snapped a picture of the Blue and White Restaurant where we had dined the previous evening.  It was the last restaurant we would see for many miles.

We spent some time on old US 61.  Illinois is not at all flat compared to this Mississippi delta land.

At one point we were forced off the road by a covey of GREEN cotton pickers and cotton wagons. Apparently I had my "invisible" shirt on, because a few moments later we were again forced off the road by a truck trying to pass the pickers.

All the functioning cotton pickers we saw were green.  Deere & Co. seems to dominate in this area.

We rested and refueled in the little town of Lula.  We got the sense in these bergs that the work force is significantly greater than the number of jobs available; they seemed considerably diminished from their earlier glory.

Pushing on, we passed a beautiful lake to the west; it appeared to be  river backwater lake and had beautiful cypress trees lining its banks.

We finished the day working on a 57 mile stretch on MS-1 into Rosedale.  It is nearly level, straight road.  There are slight grades that are more noticeable in the leg muscles than by eye.  There was a variable headwind that prompted several of the guys to ride in a pace line. 

To break the ride up we rested and refueled again in the little town of Sherrard, MS.  The temperature was in the low 90s and the sun fierce, but the humidity was relatively low, with the dew point in the low 50s.  During our stop, we me another solitary bicycle rider who was doing it the hard way.  He was pulling a little trailer with apparently all he owned.  The trailer apparently weighs about 60 pounds.  His derailleur had broken and he was stuck in a single gear, luckily a relatively low one.  He had traveled north out of California into Washington and Oregon, across the northern tier of states through Ohio and Pennsylvania and was now headed for the Gulf of Mexico.  He plans to spend the winter in Texas and hopes to find work there so he can get a new bicycle for his return trip to California.  He quipped about his trip, "It sure beats sitting around with no work".

Little was left in this town, but the municipal office shown here and some Habitat for Humanity built homes shown in the background.

We biked a total of 85 miles on Day 10, ending in Rosedale, MS,  and we learned how very flat the Mississippi delta country is.  When we could find no ice cream in Rosedale, we departed in the van for out Comfort Inn in Cleveland, MS.

Day 9 - Covington, TN to Prichard, MS

To begin our ninth consecutive day of riding, we pedaled out of our Covington motel to the SSW.  Initially we were in beautiful rolling farmland with some very nice homes, probably not farm houses.

It was an exceptionally beautiful day with with a crystal clear "Mary" sky and the air was crisp with a bit of a bite with our short sleeves.

After crossing into Kentucky we began to see many, many road-killed possum; sometimes it seemed we saw more dead possum than cars.  We were not seeing as many here in TN but still plenty. Possums should NOT be on the endangered species list.

As we approached Big Muddy the height and dcnsity of the trees and especially of the HILLS increased. 

At this spot we had to ride fast to avoid capture by the fast growing kudzu!  It was interesting to see an article in a local newspaper promoting the use of goats rather than chemicals to control kudzu; also, a donkey is good protection against the coyotes that like to eat kudzu eating goats.

We biked over miles of great roads through deep forest where the road was often like a tunnel through the trees.  We were very near the river but unable to view it for the thick forest.  Shown here is one of many MRT (Mississippi River Trail) signs that helped us find our way through th maze of forest roads.  This one was in a more open and flat area and more suitable for photographing in motion; on the hills I was too busy huffing and puffing on the way up or hanging on for the flight down the hill for photos.

Soon we arrived at the spot north of Memphis proper where we had agreed to meet to begin our ride in the van to the south of the city.  Since it was lunch time and we were in need of fuel after all the hills, we decided to stop on Beale Street in downtown Memphis.  This was a good experience; what a unique place it is.  Here we are having lunch at Alfred's with Beale Street in the background.  We enjoyed our food but we had to wait longer than desired and this required a refeeding of the parking meter.

We were brazen or foolish enough to explore Beale Street in our biking clothes, looking about as out of place as possible and having lots of fun doing so.

Mounted in the sidewalk are golden notes engaved with names of famous blues musicians.

Following our enjoyable visit to Memphis we rode in the van to a launching spot on US-61.  We flew down the road for over nine miles, but the heavy and high speed traffic was intimidating and too close for comfort on the narrow shoulder.  It wasn't long before we had completed our 80 mile ride for the day near the town of Prichard in the midst of huge flat farm field with lots of cotton.  There we piled into the van for our trip to Tunica, MS. Once the poorest county in the state the construction of huge gambling casinos on the river has changed the picture considerably.  We elected not to eat dinner in the smokey casino and drove to the quaint Blue and White Restaurant in the old part of the town of Tunica.  It was another day of heavy blessing.

Day 8 - Ridgely, TN to Covington, TN

After our usual continental breakfast at the hotel, we took off in the van for Ridgely, TN to restart the ride.  Heading SSW, we rode under near ideal conditions: a beautiful morning with a mild tailwind on very smooth roads on top of levees with almost no vehicle traffic.  We were all feeling very blessed for the opportunity.  We quickly ticked off about 30 miles heading roughly parallel to the river and then headed east toward the bluffs.  The farms to our east were broad and appeared fertile.

Climbing the bluff we saw vast displays of out of control Kudzu.  The flat bottomland roads gave way to hill after hill in the erode bluffs. 

The roads winding through the hills were beautiful even if they were challenging. We still see lots of frogs that have croaked their last and in the hills the number of possums that have failed to get across the road alive is very high.

As we began to approach Covington, we escaped the dense hills and began to see more of Tennesee's rich farmland, like these fields of cotton.

After a 76 mile day we cruised into Covington and our reaonably nice Quality Inn.We were blessed with another invigorating and beautiful day!

Day 7 - Cairo, IL to Ridgely, TN

kee

The Days Inn in Cairo, IL was unanimously voted among the worst motels ever endured. The owner, listed simply as "Bill" on his business card, tried hard but faced challenges that were beyond him.  We left the gloom of Cairo by crossing the Ohio River into Kentucky.  We planned to get out of the van at the first convenient launching spot, but the roads were anything but bike friendly near the river; narrow shoulders were covered by a rumble strip and the traffic was significant and hurrying.  So we ticked off nine of our planned miles in the van and started out on CR1203, a winding little road through the Kentucky hills on bluffs above the river.  There was plenty of climbing to keep us sweating.  The winding little streams had the characteristic orange brown opaque appearance that is often seen in Kentucky.

After a morning of winding through the hills, we stopped for lunch at another quaint little restaurant, in Carrolton (I think).  As was our earlier experience at Jen's Place for our second breakfast of the morning, prices were very low.  We wondered how they make a profit with the prices they charge. The lunch diner was special and it has a very special name.  We are thinking of and praying for you Penny!

After lunch the terrain changed from hills to rolling farmland.  Soon we were pedaling along Reelfoot Lake.  This group cannot pass up a chance for good pie.  Here we are in our sweat soaked spanex in a classy restaurant near the lake attacking pie.
The restaurant's menu had a hair raising story of the earthquakes of the early 1800s in this area.

Fueled by the pie, we charged south across farmland and saw the first cottonfields of the trip.  down to the little town of Ridgely, where we jumped into the van for the ride to the motel in Dyersburg, TN.  What a relied to see a vibrant town after spending time in Cairo.

Day 6 - Gorham, IL to Cairo, IL

We started day 6 in a confused fashion in Gorham, an almost deserted town, close to the Bottoms Up restaurant where we ended day 5.  It was a gloomy day with mist again and the sun's location was a mystery, so how did we know we were going north instead of south as specified on the cue sheet?  As a result, we earned several bonus miles to add to our planned 66 mile ride.

As we cruised south feeling damp and chilled, we could see clouds hanging on the river bluff to the east.  The Big Muddy River lies at the base of the bluff in this area, and maybe that is why we are on a road nearer Big Muddy.  Heavy rains of the past few days are evident in the image and these have stopped the furious harvesting activity we had been witnessing.

After a quick tour of the town of Grand Tower, right on the Mississippi behind massive levees, we angle across the bottoms for our brief visit to Trail of Tears State Forest and Shawnee National Forest.  The hills in the forest made us do some sweating...a change of pace after spending so much time in bottomland.  Then we linked up with IL 127 and stopped in Jonesboro for lunch in a neat little cafe that sported a lot of maps and shelves full of interesting books.  The server was envious of our trip and wanted to join us.

Heading south on IL 127 the rain came more earnestly.  Soon we were dripping but the temperature was high enough that this was OK.  It is a unique feeling to get sprayed heavily on the back by all the water thrown up by the rear tier and to feel is soaking your britches and seeping down your back and beyond. The front tire does a great job on your front side.  The roads south were less hilly than expected.  By the time we got to Olive Branch Road and the town of Mounds the rain had ended and it was getting steamy.  Soon we were at our Days Inn on the outskirts of Cairo. 

Searching for supper we visited the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.  It is very impressive!  These are two huge and powerful rivers.  A tour of Cairo left me depressed. In the late 60s it was apparently a town of 30,000.  Race riots, I-57, loss of industrial employment have left it a struggling community of about 2,700 now.  The old down-town area looks like a war zone, abandoned and falling down.  But we did manage to find a little restaurant that had a catfish and chicken special that we enjoyed.  Stimulating discussions with long time locals ensued.

Day 5 - Valmeyer, IL to Gorham, IL

After spending the night in a nice Super 8 motel in Waterloo, IL, we drove by van to Valmeyer, IL, which was the planned end point for day 4.  It was a gloomy, dark day.  A light rain caused us to don our rain jackets, but the sweat we began to generate inside our jackets was a greater nuisance than

Day 4 - Pere Marquette Park to Waterloo, IL

We left Pere Marquette Lodge on a bike trail that took us all the way to Alton, IL; it was a short stone throw from the wide Illinois River for much of the way.  It follows the tall stone bluffs along the river, but in some places it sorely shows the neglect that comes from Illinois' buget crunch.  At times it seemed were doing mountain biking rather than trail riding.  In one of the rough stretches we met Recluse and Ice.  They are riding to New Orleans from Chicago self-supported.  The previous night they had slept in the front yard of a nearby small town mayor, the second mayor they had met.  Since starting their trip a couple of weeks earlier they had bathed only in the Illinois River.  They were enthusiastic and seemed like nice kids and were very eager to share their experiences.  Through much of the Alton and East St Louis area we were on levee trails.  We stopped at the Lewis and Clark Museum and enjoyed a very good learning experience along the Confluence Trail.  To play it safe, we rode the van from Granite City to Cahokia.  There we followed some roads, like Bluff and Levee, that seemed rather choked with traffic and lots of trucks.  Eventually they led us out across the bottoms to calmer and calmer areas, and finally to Vallmeyer.  What a place!  Before the flood of 1993 it was a town of about 800 and now there are only a couple of homes.  The river is not at all visible nor are any signs of it, but the gentleman we talked to said he had 9.5 feet of water in his 10 ft ceilinged rooms.  The town was moved to a nearby bluff.  Ken, Bill an Tom rode vigorously (Tom's opinion) from Cahokia, and then rode the 12 bonus miles to Waterloo, IL up on the bluff for a total of 78 miles.   Here are Ice (always icing his sore knee) and Recluse (thought he had a Brown Recluse spider bite and appear to actually have one) in front of the Piasa bird.

Along the Illinois River Bluffs - Grafton to Alton

Beautiful bluffs near Vallmeyer - the bluff we rode up!

Day 3 - Quincy,IL to Pere Marquette Park, IL

Heading south from Quincy we began the longest planned mileage day of the trip: 103 miles. After some dicey riding with highway traffic and a lot of trucks on SH57, we meandered along the bottoms with lots of levees on SH106.  The wind, which had been our combatant, became our friend and helped us along.  The roads were very nice with generally light traffic and relatively friendly drivers.  We connected with SH96 near Kinderhook and covered lots of its miles at the base of the bluffs with great views of the bottoms to the west. When SH96 turned east, we stayed on Mississippi River Road near Big Muddy and continued to plunge south.  Eventually we took the Illinois River Road through Brussels and took the Brussels Ferry across the Illinois River, landing just south of Pere Marquette State park where we spent the night.

Bottomland and levees

We enjoyed our second breakfast at a cool little diner in the little berg of Atlas.  It turned out to be lunch also.

Atlas Cafe in Atlas, IL

In the little town of Pleasant Hill we discovered what must be the real reason Jerry McCann could not make the ride this year.  He has to spend too much time campaigning! 

Some of Jerry's Advertising

 

A year for broad mud flats in the bottoms

Anther view of the ferry

Very nice lodge at Pere Marquette Park

Changing times in the country

Don enjoying the ferry ride along with the odorous garbage truck