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

Day 2 - Burlington, IA to Quincy, IL

We got started early knowing we had a long day with 84 miles and an uncertain wind situation; this turned out to be a wise move!  We started down this road where the wind seemed channeled and accelerated by the brittle, dry corn, which was rattling and swaying in disconcerting ways.  Soon we saw lightning flashes in the distance and were hoping we would get south before an ominous flashing cloud caught us.  We were fortunate that the raindrops were only dense enough to make us worry about were whether our electronics and wallets were waterproof and not enough to really test our waterproofing efforts.

Arriving in Dallas City, straddling a busy railroad and along some nice backwater lake, we stopped at Buford's Cafe and enjoyed our second breakfast and some very friendly residents.  It is always interesting to see the reaction to a bunch of spandex sporting frieks in the redneck areas.

Picturesque towns like Dallas City are a big part of the joy of a bike trip such as this one.

Heading west towards Nauvoo over beans and corn fields and quite a few cattle farms in areas not suitable for row crops.  We arrived at Nauvoo with its spectacular Mormon temple and a great deal of other Mormon history.

Leaving Nauvoo we traveled south along the river on Great River Road - a nice ride with a few hills, but with an ominous strong south wind occasionally challenging us.

Bill asked a very friendly, helpful, and especially colorful resident we met in the great diner (rhubarb pie!!) we stopped at in Warsaw to pose for us.  Note her message on the t-shirt.  We were careful to give her no opportunity to use her "attitude'!!

Leaving Warsaw we started out with some fine views of the river, but soon we moved away from the river to face our enemy from yesterday.

In the near 30 mile stretch from Warsaw to Quincy, the wind was frequently at 28 mph with gusts to 39 mph, and directly from the south...our direction of travel!!  It was incredible!  Five of us formed a pace line to cope with it.

When flooding can be controlled, this is apparently rich farm land as many grain bins and huge ripe fields of corn and beans  in the valley attest.

What would harvest time be without caterpillars crossing the roads?  But what is it with those we are seeing in this area and at this time.  Rather than the dark orange with a black stripe, we saw light orange ones and with no stripe! Does this mean we are in for a really tough winter, an easy winter, or does this county just have wierd caterpillars?

At about 5:00 PM we arrive at Quincy.  Tired and bedraggled as we were it was a welcome site.  To top off the really tough 87 miles, we had a really steep hill to climb to the parking lot of the Microtel.  Tomorrow is another long day - 103 miles - but the fierce wind is forcast to be out of the west rather than the south an this would be a real break.

Day 1 - Edgington,IL to Burlington, IA

We are underway!!  After a short Irish dance recital (see Tom's beautiful granddaughters Jamie and Jennifer), everyone showed up and we took beginning images.

We headed west out of Edgington at about 12:30 PM into a beautiful clear day, but with an ominous powerful wind trying to push us off the north edge of the road.  Through Illinois City we traveled on the rather flat prairie and the plunged into the Mississippi valley in an area with thickening trees. Then we turned south and faced our enemy for the day: a wind from the south at 17 with gusts to 26mph.  It was persistent and unrelenting until we reached our destination around 6:00 PM.
In the valley, the land was typical Illinois except all sand with lots of irrigation systems: corn and beans, and beans and corn.  There were lots of nice farmsteads and plenty of resort type cottages when we were at the river's edge.  In many spots we saw loads of snakes that had met their maker crossing the road; I had to dodge a little one who was much alive, all coiled up and daring a car to hit him.  Many frogs have croaked trying to get over those roads...it must be mating season.
We passed interesting little towns like Oquawka and Keithsburg, the latter being the original home of Julie's Abbot in-laws upon arriving from Europe.  The homes are not too rich and not too poor.  We followed several parts of the Great River Road.
Arriving in Burlington we had a great meal at a local (non chain) restaurant.
We chalked up about 63 miles - not bad for our first afternoon in a stiff wind.

Hurrying to be ready!

Unlike last year when we were preparing for Across America North (AAN), preparation this year took back burner to a variety of things.  These things started when we hauled the bicycle all the way to Colorado hoping to fit some riding those beautiful CO places, but never getting the bike out of the trunk.  Family things always trump biking but it was still a bummer to miss those leg burning mountains.  The family time were spectacular as are those CO mountains.

This trend continued when the broken sewer line mandated patio rebuild took most of all weeks until last week.  Not that there was no training, but construction training builds muscles not frequently used on the bike.  So endurance on the saddle is a bit of a question at this point.  I managed to get in rather frequent hilly strength rides, but they were usually less than 30 miles.  We worked in some longer ones in the past couple of weeks.

So tomorrow we head for Edgington, IL, just south of the Quad Cities.  We ride 64 miles to Bulington, IA, in the hills and valleys along Big Muddy.  We are excited!!  The we are: Tom Beveridge, Ken (Kenner)McGarvey, Ken Zika, riders of all or part of AAN last year, Bill Wendle, Don Niemi, John Mallon, and Emiel Michelet who graciously offered to drive.  We, mostly Bill an Kenner actually, rented a large van and chose existing routes to get to Vicksburg, MS.  If all goes as planned, we should arrive on 16 Septmber.  That gives us a day to explore the battlefield before heading home on 18 Sep.