Zip-Ties are the new duct tape

After 93 miles we ended up in a hotel in Covington, TN but we had an interesting time getting there. We were dry for about fifteen minutes before the first storm hit. We kept riding through rain all day with each new wave coming when we were almost dry from the last one. Somewhere along the way the bracket holding my carrier to my bike broke and my packs dropped to the ground. We were able to get them back in place with 2 zip-ties. Then Craig's back light shorted because it got wet inside. 2 more zip-ties and we got the spare in place. He picked up a pack of one hundred at a convienence/bait shop and used two more to really secure my carrier. Now we have enough to cover any emergency-I hope!

We are feeling like we are in the South now. All the breakfast sandwiches come on biscuits. Everyone calls us Maam and Sir. There are pop machines outside even when the building is boarded up. And they call it Coke, not pop. Sweet Tea is the drink of choice. It's good but someday  I'd like to find an iced latte again. And we started seeing cotton!!! We talked with a retired farmer and he said the KY line is about as far north as cotton goes. All the farms are a couple thousand acres now because they use automatic harvesters and nobody lives on the farms anymore. 

For a while we were riding through the hills. So much is covered with kudzu and it looks really eerie. The places looked a bit wild and uncared for and the dogs weren't tied up and enjoyed chasing us. We were glad to get back on the flats where there were more people and the dogs were lazier. 

Reelfoot Lake, Tn

We made it across the bridge over the Ohio from Cairo, IL to KY because a semi driver was nice enough to stay behind us so nobody would try to pass. It is a narrow high speed bridge and we had been warned about it so we were dreading it. Neither if us even remembers taking a peek at the River. Soon after the Ohio joined the Mississippi and there was a great viewing spot of the confluence. The first 10 miles in Kentucky had no shoulder and heavy traffic and the only hotel was closed. 

After that we were on rural roads and were riding through wooded rolling hills. We stayed at a State Park campground overlooking the Mississippi. The shower room had AC, there was a concession stand and we had a swing at our site. 

This was a great campground!

Belmont Columbus SP was an important site in the Civil War. The South tried to block off the River but Grant came down from Cairo with 4 ships and claimed Columbus, KY.  For this win he was awarded command of all the Union Forces. Neither of us knew much about the Civil War from the Mississippi aspect before we visited this park and museum and we were excited to learn so much. 

There are only 61 miles of MRT in KY so we were in TN by noon today. The welcome sign was not too welcoming and within 15 minutes those black clouds let loose. We were drenched before we could find shelter so we turned on our flashing lights and kept riding. Fifteen miles in we came to a lake with a hotel --$60 including tax but we would have paid far more as it stormed all afternoon. 

At the restaurant our waitress was so amazed that we were from New York that she told everyone else.  We had fried catfish, cole slaw and hush puppies. The cook came out and asked if the food was the same in NY and if the prices were different. We said we never had catfish in NY and his food was delicious. We said the prices were a bit higher in Manhattan but he has no idea. 

Devil's Backbone CG

We hopped the ferry back into Illinois and most of the riding today was fairly flat. The roads are in the Bottoms which is what they are calling the floodplain. It is much wider on this side of the river. We were often able to ride on paved levees past the cornfields. We did ride up the hill into Chester because 31 years ago we crossed the Mississippi River there on a west to east cross country ride on our tandem. This marks the intersection of our W-E trip and our N-S trip. Chester is where the comic strip "Popeye" originated in the 1920s and 1930s. My Dad got his nickname Jeep after the character Eugene the Jeep. Last time we were here we took pictures of the Popeye statue for him but now there is one of Olive Oyl holding SweePea and standing by Eugene the Jeep so of course we took a picture. 

After 63 miles we found a campground right by the river and we are sitting at the picnic table watching the barges pass and the sun set over the river. 

Ste Genevieve, MO

We spent 2 nights in St Louis and ate at the Schlafly Brew Pub and also sampled "gooey butter cake", some St Louis specialties. On Sunday we took the metro and bus to see our niece in the suburbs. We met her dog, went swimming and enjoyed some margaritas and tacos. 

This morning we got a late start because my shifter cable broke and we had to wait for a bike shop to open. They fixed it up fine and I am thankful because today was 65 miles of hills. Not too long or too steep but they just kept coming all day. 

Going into St Louis was bike path for about 20 miles. Leaving St Louis the MRT was along a state highway and then US 61. There was a fair amount of traffic and little to no shoulder so riding took a lot of concentration. We stopped often to enjoy the scenery and to rest up a bit. 

This town is really interesting. We are at the Southern Motel B&B. It claims to be the oldest brick building west of the Mississippi. The whole town is historic with buildings as old as 1700s when this area was still French. 

Tomorrow we plan to take a ferry back to Illinois. We're hoping that either the hills or the traffic will be better. Both would be nice. 

Alton, Illinois

Yesterday we rode 93 miles because we did not go past any places still open for food or lodging. So many of the towns along the river here are not really towns anymore. The farms are huge and the soybeans and corn look pretty good. Most of the houses right in town look the worse for wear but we saw some beautiful homes and gardens right on the farms. The locals seem to be doing pretty well and must head to bigger towns to shop and socialize. The town we ended up staying in supposedly had camping but nobody was there and the bathrooms were locked up. We rode to the city park which was a ball field and some picnic tables and a bathroom with running water. We ate some dinner and waited for dark to pitch our tent. We woke to a beautiful sunrise and four deer and a bunny to share it with. The town had a cafe open for breakfast and lunch so we went back and had a big breakfast. 

We were pleasantly surprised to see a corner store around noon and the owner made us some sandwiches with homegrown tomatoes.

The pictures are: one of many brick silos,

a typical town home, sunrise from our campsite, and a sign for the recently flooded MRT.

We finished today riding along the Illinois River and the confluence with the Mississippi. We were right by the river and saw lots of barges with grain and coal. On the other side were steep cliffs. It was a really beautiful ride and we only had to go 73 miles to find a motel with laundry. St Louis tomorrow!!

Keokuk Iowa

These last 2 days have taken us through some pretty flat farmland. We've seen huge fields of corn and soybeans. We had some monster farm equipment pass us on the roads. They say it is for spraying  fungicide on the crops but I think they are filming a Star Wars movie. 

We stopped for coffee at The Filling Station in Milan and the owner is friends with the guy that rides RAGBRAI without a seat so he wanted to talk biking with us. A few miles down the road another guy flagged us down to talk. He had done a Trans-Am ride and was thinking of doing the MRT. It's always fun to talk with other interested bikers and we enjoyed the rest stops. 

After 82 miles yesterday we hadn't been able to find a hotel or even somewhere selling food so we camped in a DNR campground. There was no running water but there were also no fees or other campers. It was actually pretty nice and we had some oatmeal and the rest of our dried Michigan cherries for breakfast. 

We knew there was a town in 20 miles but there were no services. The next town had a Casey's but that was it so we had a slice of breakfast pizza and some Gatorade. We thought we'd stay in Navou. All the motels were full and the town was filled with LDS people so we went on. We went 2 miles out of our way for a total of 60 and crossed the bridge into Iowa to stay in a motel. We really didn't want to go two days without showers. We'll cross back to Illinois tomorrow because while Iowa has services it also has lots of hills. 

We're trying to get to St Louis by Saturday so we can spend some time with our niece, Jane, and her new dog. 

Rock Island

We started yesterday with 25 miles of hills and then we crossed the river into Savannah, Illinois and were greeted by lovely flat prairies. The crossing was about 3 miles of sloughs and then a pretty scary bridge over the main channel. Instead of pavement we had to ride on metal grating with a strong crosswind. The side rail was only hip high and we were quite thankful for the lack of traffic. 

Illinois did not have a sign to welcome us but they had something even better. 60 miles of signed and separated bike trails along the river. A lot of the trail was through wildlife refuge and restored prairies. Very beautiful and relaxing. 

We were at 84 miles when we reached the end of the trail so we stopped in Rock Island. Today's ride should be fairly flat but we won't go through many towns and we'll need to carry some extra food.