65.1 miles, 2734 miles total
No flats, no rain (yet), beautiful roads(!) and trail. We had a good day. 😁
It was hard but necessary to leave the hospitality of, and views from, Nancy and John’s home…
…but gravity helped. We pointed our front tires downhill and before we knew it we were nose-to-nose with Great River Road and the Mississippi River. We got on the bike lane and headed south-east towards Alton.
The bike lane was good but had a lot of debris, so we moved onto the trail alongside when it became available. It was much better (less glass, more bumps, more shade).
We marveled at the Melvin Price Lock And Dam in Alton…
… then headed south-east on the levy for miles.
Eventually we turned east towards Edwardsville on beautiful roads. Steve was desperate for an ice-cold, refillable, soda, so we headed to DQ. It was a good choice. I had the presence of mind to add a small blizzard to my order for $2. Steve and Bob, disappointed, didn’t read the menu well enough to take advantage of that offer. I tried not to enjoy it too much.
Refreshed, we got on the Nickel Plate Trail.
What a pleasure; the parts that were not paved with asphalt were well paved with crushed limestone, there was scattered shade and it was flat.
Midway to New Douglas we stopped for a well earned refreshment in the, exotically named, Alhambra.
When the trail ended in New Douglas we were hungry. And we realized that we had neglected to plan for dinner. Thankfully, according to Google maps, Sorento, not far from our planned campsite, had a mini-mart. We made our way there and were relieved to find we could buy spam and eggs, so that’s what we did.
Now we’re at the campsite hoping it’ll cool off so we can be inspired to cook.
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