Author: azcolin

60.4 miles today, 2929 miles total

We woke up to a damp campsite this morning and we all commented on the overnight rain; it was pretty heavy at times.  Since the laundry we had hung hopefully before going to bed was now dripping wet again we took a leisurely approach to getting going while we tried, and failed, to dry it some more.

By about 9:30 we set out on beautiful roads through the flat farmland of eastern Illinois…

…and before too long we became suspicious that we were in Indiana.  And we were, so we have no official state line crossing photo.  Soon enough we found ourselves at a sign identifying the Wabashiki Fish and Wildlife Area, managed by the Indiana department of natural resources.  Confusingly, this area is huge and we came across many other signs indicating the same thing.

We picked up lunch in West Terre Haute and stopped under a ramada overlooking more of the Wabashiki area.  Alas, our bagels were pretty terrible.  First, it was a bag of five, which makes the division difficult, then they were pretty stale, despite the Aug 26th best-by date.  Good cream cheese hides many ills, but it did little to revive these bagels 😕

Immediately after lunch we got our first experience of Indiana bike trails. This one ran from West Terra Haute to Terra Haute (proper).

We found another nice trail that ran through Terra Haute and about 6 miles beyond, then we were stuck on HWY 40 for about 20 miles. 

It had 4 lanes and decent shoulders so it’s not the worst road we’ve encountered, but we were ready to be finished with it as we got closer to our destination, the Cloverdale KOA.

Alas, there were basically no services on the way here so we got set up and ordered a pizza.  There was no delivery option so a 3.5 mile round trip was required to pick it up.

Our route planning discussion started over pizza, moved to the laundry room and back, and terminated with a decision to sleep in and sleep on it.  All reasonable options put us squarely in the middle of Indianapolis tomorrow, where camping is understandably scarce.  So we either go short, or long, or spend a night in a hotel. Tune in tomorrow to see how it works out  😉

Finally, we lost another hour today, so we are now 3 hours ahead of our families back in Seattle. 

Bob had the decency to break his chain in proximity to a darned-fine shade tree. 

I hear optimistic comments.  I think we’ll be underway again soon. 

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. 

54.54 miles today, 2595 miles overall

Without having to break camp and pack tents, we got off to an unusually early start this morning at 6:45.  Before long we were riding in the tunnels of shade that have been helping us deal with the heat.

But the nature of this trail is changing, and we are meeting more single-sided shade areas

We realized that we were frequently “shadebanking’ (that’s a new word).  It’s defined as time taken to fortify oneself the shade of a trail before scuttling across an open section in direct sun. 

Shadebanking aside, we were looking for a breakfast opportunity and coming up blank.  Someone left a couple of apples in the fridge at the shelter and since the fridge is supposed to be emptied before departure, we took them along with us.  At about 15 miles, in   a moment of desperation, we tried apple and peanut butter in our last three tortillas and found it more than acceptable.  So there’s a new option for future lunches (apples travel better than bananas on warm days).

Thankfully, we covered 30 miles by about 10:30 am and found ourselves at McKittrick and the Loutre Market (it’s close to the Loutre River, north of Hermann).  Brunch was a combination of breaded chicken or fish, yogurt and raspberries.

After lunch we got back on the trail and noticed some trail/river-side navigation markers, but we had seen no vessels navigating the river.

Before we left the market, Steve had the presence of mind to pick up some snacks. Most importantly a six pack of donuts. Not long after brunch, we found ourselves ready to eat those donuts and decided the best place was on the bridge over Smith Creek.

We watched a school of very large catfish and a snapper turtle swimming around, and then the intricate dance of Miss Emma (large tug) and Abigale Dayle (small tug). 

While that was going on, the Jamie Leigh (very large tug) passed on the way downstream.  So now we know why the navigation markers are there.

We didn’t realize that the Smith Creek Bridge was going to provide such entertainment, so we are very glad we stopped. Our only disappointment was Steve’s selection of a six pack of donuts instead of the 12 pack he’d also considered.  We got back on the trail…

…and made rapid progress to Marthasville where we got great pizza at Philly’s.

We are now lounging around at the local ballpark where we are campimg for $5 per head. Unfortunately, there are lots of pesky kids playing ball 😉…

… so we’re going to have to wait a while before we can get set up.

Flora and fauna

In addition to the snake and tortoise I posted pictures of earlier, we saw

Not photographed:

• Badger (too fast)
• Many cardinals (also too fast)

58.1 miles by bike (36 miles by truck), 2429.2 miles total

Refreshed, both ourselves and our bikes, we set off with Ken in command.

He drove us clear over a state line with narry a blink of recognition (Bob and Steve expect liquid recompense anyway). 

Today we would start riding the Rock Island Spur of the Katy Trail.  We were all excited about this because the Katy Trail is one of the nicest in the country.  I rode 20 miles of it near Rocheport back in 1991.  Bob has ridden most of it over the years.  My friends (and fellow instructors) Nancy and Rebecca from Cascade Bicycle Club rode the trail last year and told me great things about it.

So, we packed the bikes at the Pleasant Hill Trail Head…

…bade our farewells to Ken (also official photographer) and set off with enthusiasm.  We got around a corner and Bob said, ‘I have no shifting’.

So, there ensued 3 mins of angst and 12 mins of ‘find me a gear that works’.  The trail is supposed to be flat so that seemed like it should be good. 

So, we were off.  The trail was beautiful (Bob agreed from his two-speed).

But then he decided he had the wrong two speeds. So, another quick adjustment was made and we were off again.

The trail was beautiful 🙂

We were getting pretty hot by the time we reached Leeton, and we found our way to the lovely Di Maggio’s dinner for lunch.

We met a preacher there who was walking from Indiana to LA so he’s officially crazier than we are (Steve just bought a local paper that has a story about him and his journey).  Anyway, he engaged us in conversation and said ‘You look pretty fresh.  Did you just meet up with these guys or are you a local tour guide?  They look pretty beat’. 😂

We enjoyed the food and the barely functioning air conditioning (it’ll be fixed tomorrow) and shared a peach cobbler.  We’d go back.  But, we pressed on, and the trail/countryside was beautiful…

We arrived in Windsor…

… and stopped to rest at our first ‘proper’ Katy Trail trailhead.

Fortified by a custard donut (or two) Bob and I got his shifter working again(!!! 😁 😁)…

…while Steve surreptitiously waited to take a photo of an Amish horse and cart (several passed when he wasn’t looking).

With 48 miles under our (mostly new) tires, and with Bob saying ‘I love shifting’,  every couple of pedal strokes,  we set off again…. and the trail was beautiful.

Pretty soon we reached the high point of the Katy Trail. 

We journeyed on until we reached Green Ridge, where Bob fell off his bike and embraced the grass.

We set up camp in the local park but were distressed to see that alcohol consumption in the park was prohibited.  So we crossed the street and drank our beer and ate gas station pizza on the benches in front of the community center…

… in full view of the park; it was immensely satisfying.

Here’s a picture of a new flower seen on the trail today.

It wasn’t a puncture, so Bob’s tires remain invincible.  He ran over something that got between his spokes, broke his valve stem, tore off his fender and brought him to a grinding halt.

30.6 miles by bike, ~125 miles in Ken’s pickup, 2371 total (bicycle) miles

Yesterday in Marysville we had a team-talk.  We had been alerted to an impending heat-dome and we were relatively close to my friend Ken’s house where we had intended to spend a couple of nights, resting and getting bikes serviced, etc.  Ken had offered to pick us up within a couple hundred miles of his home.  We decided to take him up on the offer and, hopefully, recuperate and service bikes during the worst of the heat.

So, we had a more leisurely start to the day than usual, and we set off east on Hwy 9 past many wind turbines, noting that they were all spinning. 

We turned south, into the wind, on Hwy 99 at the small town of Frankfort…

… and rode on to the smaller, unincorporated, town of Blaine.  There we collapsed in the shade of a tree beside the, very substantial and good looking, church. 

While Steve was napping and I was chatting to my parents, Bob walked to this repair shop…

…and returned, excitedly, with a pre-made sandwich and a cold drink.  Steve and I soon followed and made similar purchases.  The proprietor was a very nice, talkative, older lady; transactions took a while. 

At about the same time we got a text from Ken telling us he was 30 minutes from our intended meeting place.  We were approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes from said meeting place!

After quickly renegotiating the pickup point, we made a mad dash 2 miles down the road to Pottawatomie County State Lake #1.  Steve rolled in with a flat tire 😄, we didn’t bother fixing it.

We stripped the luggage from our bikes beside the lake, Ken arrived within 10 minutes and we gladly loaded the bikes.

In the next two and a half hours we covered three or more days of riding-distance and arrived at Ken’s with everything present and correct.

Before long we were unloaded, showered and dressed in clean clothes.  Ken treated us to salmon and vegetables with rice. We gleefully put the dishes in the dishwasher.

It was a good day.  Steve’s tire remains flat.