Nicknames

I have been wanting to write about the various nicknames for the Mississippi River for some time and time is running short for this blog. So here are some of them: The Father of Waters, the Gathering of Waters, the Lazy River, the Big Muddy, the Big River, Old Man River, Body of a Nation, and the Mighty Mississippi.

Today's ride was mostly along the river. We saw two locks and dams today. The river widens quite a bit above the dams. It looked to be at least 2 miles across. I wondered whether the dam caused the river to back up and flood the surrounding area. After some consideration, I decided that the dam is built in these spots because the narrowing of the river forced a lot of water through a narrow area and created rapids that made the river unnavigable. The river here is much calmer than on the Lower Mississippi. There are not as many large rivers feeding the big river in the north.

Today's ride was unremarkable. There was plenty to see, just not enough safe moments to gaze around while riding. We were on a highway for 50 of the 66 miles. The road had a narrow shoulder for most of it and lots of truck traffic. We were honked at many times today. Tomorrow is more of the same with 94 of 101 miles on a major highway. These two days will rank in my least favorite days for bicycle touring.

Today's stats: 66 miles; 15.2 mph; 1041 feet climbing.

Highlight of the day: I had a margarita and beer on the hotel deck overlooking a tributary river to the Mississippi. I do not ordinarily have alcohol on ride nights but wanted to have it to soothe my thoughts about today's ride.

A new pill

I had to take a dose of courage just 1.9 miles from the hotel today. I knew the cue sheet said steep descent in bold, capital letters and indeed it was. I tightened up the brakes before leaving and it held me in good stead. I asked Kathleen at the bottom how it compared with the one I skipped yesterday. She thought it was steeper. As Sondra drove the van by a few miles later, I shouted out "I did it!" She heard me and congratulated me at the first SAG.

My friend Ty says that scenic is a Gaelic word for hilly. Today was a scenic day. We had over 4,000 feet climbing during the day. In the first 5 miles, we had done 550 feet of climbing over 4 or 5 rollers. John said he would have walked one of them if other riders had not been behind him to witness it. Funny thing how pride can serve as a motivator. Pixie threw her chain on the hill and had to walk up the rest of it as restarting was out of the question. I am thankful that I have a triple chainring. It makes me appear to be a stronger climber than others but I know that is not the case.

I was flying down some of the hills today. My maximum speed was 38 today, the highest of the trip. I can only do that on an empty road with good pavement. We did have a 2.5 mile downhill after the first SAG that was on an awful road. There was a big perpendicular crack every 10 yards of the 7 miles we were on the road. No shoulder with lots of traffic. Caution was in order on this section.

We are in Prairie du Chien tonight. It is near the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers and is said to be the second oldest town in Wisconsin. The first European settlers, Marquette and Joliet, reached here in 1673. It became a passage point between French Canada and the Mississippi River. The town is on a flat prairie between the surrounding hills and takes it name from an Indian chief named Dog. Dog translates to chien in French. The town became a focal point for the fur trade and remained so through the middle 19th century. 3M and Cabelas are the largest private employers in the area today.

Day's statistics: 71.8 miles; 15.4 mph; 4071 feet climbing.

Highlight of the day: Making it down the first big descent without being too scared. Maybe I can just do this. Feeling more confident on downhills the rest of the day.

Pictures: Jordan and Rosy, two great people from Alaska. I ride with or near them much of the day during this trip. I have told Jordan that I know two people named Jordan and they are both great cyclists. Me at the Wisconsin state line.

Some days never go right

I had been flat free until today. I pumped up the tires as usual, but ruined the valve on the front tire. It was a good thing I was out there early as I was able to repair it and still have breakfast with 10 minutes to spare.

The first part of the ride was nearly completely on a bike path. Lots of turns and stop signs, which we barely slowed down for. I felt like an outlaw as I stop for all of them at home. After the first SAG, we were on roads for 4.5 miles. John and I were supposed to get back on a bike path which we did not see. This path would have taken us another 20 miles to the second SAG. Instead, we rode the next 20 miles on the highway with no shoulder to the second SAG. Once again I felt like an outlaw as I am off route and I wait for 10 miles to phone it in. As I am making the call, here comes Jeff in the van. He stops up the road at a gas station and I further explain the situation. No big deal, he says. My conscience is cleared! Because of near dire warnings of long descents with grades up to 15 percent and lingering thoughts of poor Rollie crashing earlier on a big descent, I elected to take the car in to the hotel from the second SAG. I could have handled the first one with ease as it turned out. The second was questionable not due to its technical merits but it was truly steep at 15 percent and the road condition was good only in the center. Not my cup of tea. After waiting around for what seemed forever, I took the car to the bottom of this descent with the intention of riding from there to the hotel. Staff dropped me off and lo and behold, I had a second flat, this time in the second tire. I had picked up a 1/2 inch tire wire that penetrated my tire liner. No big deal. I had the tire off and new tube in within 5 minutes. Wait! Where is my pump? Oh, it is in the car still as I had to take it off to put on the bike rack and neglected to take it out. Oops! Of course, there is so much stuff in this car that finding anything is a true miracle.

Here comes Kathleen and she has a pump! Wait! No air is going in the tire. Oops again! (and some other thoughts not expressed). I am thinking that it is really not my day. I am out of tubes. I call Pam and she comes to pick me up but we have to wait for the last riders to clear which takes another hour. By this time, I have not been riding for nearly 5 hours. Upon reaching the hotel, I examined the tube and the hole was in an unusual spot. I remembered stepping on the tube while trying to change it in a rock gravel driveway. Live and learn. By the time I get a new tube in and clean the bike from 10 minutes of light rain, it is 5:20. I have not showered and it is only 25 minutes until route rap and dinner (which was a wonderful catered affair).

Well it is all an adventure I told myself. I very much know this from previous rides and take it in stride. More steep drops tomorrow according to the route profile, but I will just ride down them.

Today's route was to Galena, near the Illinois-Wisconsin border. Old town looked quite interesting with many shops and plenty of Memorial Day tourists. The town is the birthplace of Ulysses S. Grant.

Partial day's stats: 54.4 miles out of 93; 15.3 miles; 760 feet of climbing. I missed 2000 feet of climbing in the last 39 miles.
Highlight of the day: Retaining a sense of humor (as I hope my dear readers can see).

A day to think

We had a relatively late start at 8 today and it seemed to be 80 degrees already. John and I rode together for the first 10 miles or so. Pam came up on John's wheel very fast and John moved in front of me. I think that Pam must have seen it as a challenge and she passed John. John was having none of it and they were off to the races at about 27 mph and settled into a cruise pace of 24 for a few miles. Pam is on the staff and she always rides sweep. After a few exhilarating miles, she turned around and went back to the sweep position. We had no idea that she was that fast. Of course, every ABB staff member is quite quick.

John continued on at a strong pace. I rode the rest of the day by myself. The SAG was in the small town of Viola. That was my mother's name and she was born just 125 miles from there. So I had in my mind that the town was named after her. Of course, that is a complete fiction. But giving some extended thoughts to my parents was comforting today. Anyway, riding by myself gave me time to think about something else besides switching position with John and keeping off his wheel when he is in front. With 5 riding days to go, thoughts are turning to home and post-ride plans.

The day was unremarkable in scenery. It was the usual cornfields on both sides of the road until the SAG. As I looked down the road from the SAG, I could see trees and rolling hills. So there were no more cornfields. The last 6 miles to the hotel were on a bike path along the river. After seeing much commercial traffic on the river, I saw recreational use on it the last 2 days. Today there were some cabin cruiser type boats moving along and yesterday I witnessed someone fishing from a boat in the river. There were plenty of idle industrial plants along the river. Our hotel tonight in Moline is the Stoney Creek Inn and is the nicest of the trip. The area around the hotel looks largely redeveloped and is quite nice. We saw many cyclists along the path, mostly casual riders out for a Sunday stroll. It was probably the largest number of other riders we have seen other than for the race in St. Genevieve last weekend.

In answer to Ira's comment yesterday about chocolate milk, I did have one yesterday at the second SAG. 13.5 ounces went down without taking my lips off the bottle. It was very tasty. My preferred recovery drink after a long day is V8 juice. It is richer in sodium and potassium. I bought a 46 ounce bottle yesterday after my lunch and consumed about 40 ounces of it by departure this morning. I find it to be a good preparation drink on these hot and humid days. I frequently buy a small bottle at a gas station along the way.

Day's stats: 59.8 miles; 16.5 mph; climbing unknown.

A whole lot of shaking going on

Today's ride was 97 miles. The temperature at the start was quite pleasant in the low 60s. One rider said he was tempted to go back to the start and get his jacket. We rode in the shade of the bluffs and trees for most of the first 14 miles to Nauvoo, IL. Nauvoo was the site where Joseph Smith led his original followers of the Latter Day Saints religion (Mormons). The historic Nauvoo contains many nice buildings. Fred said that they date to the 1830s and 1840s when Smith and his followers lived in Nauvoo. Smith is buried in Nauvoo having been martyred for his beliefs. A modern Mormon temple was constructed from 1999 to 2002 and stands on the site of the original temple. The original temple was destroyed by fire in the 1840s.

After leaving Nauvoo, we were in open territory for the remainder of the day. It was corn field after corn field. Corn is definitely king in Illinois. Nothing else was planted as far as I could tell. The soil is a dark black, much unlike the reddish clay soil of home.

The day became gradually warmer and we pressed on to the hotel arriving just before 2. At approximately 10 miles from the hotel, we made a turn onto a recently roto-milled road. This is a road that has been stripped of most of its asphalt surface in preparation for resurfacing. As all drivers know, such a road is quite bumpy. Imagine a force on the bicycle and its rider that is many-fold the discomfort. You are holding on for dear life and hope that you are not dislodged from the trusty bike into the path of a car. Most of the cars gave us a wide berth, although one came quite unnecessarily close. We were on this surface for approximately 4 miles. I could not read my bike computer as everything was jostled. We had to look far down the road to avoid a hypnotic state of looking at the grooves on the road immediately in front of the bike. Looking at the immediate road was very disconcerting. At one point I entered a large parking lot and entered back onto the roadway some 100 meters further saving some shaking.

We are spending the night perhaps as from the Mississippi River as will happen on the ride.

Day's stats: 96.8 miles, 15.5 mph, 2520 feet climbing.

Highlight of the day: A cool morning start and a fine sandwich and lemonade at the end of the ride.

In Keokuk Iowa

We traveled across the Mississippi twice today. Once leaving Hannibal and into Illinois, the second leaving Illinois and into Keokuk, Iowa. We are only 1/2 mile into Iowa and will turn around tomorrow and go back into Illinois.

I have had a recurring dream since I retired that I go back to work for the State of Colorado and can never leave. The nightmare of the dream is that I lose a portion of my pension benefits. I had the dream again last night and I finally was able to escape working for the state. Maybe I will never have this dream again. My synopsis of the dream is that I also wanted badly to escape the hotel we stayed in. I am usually the last one to have my gear to the lobby in the morning. Today I was 25 minutes early.

When we arrived in the outskirts of Quincy after 22 miles, there was a large opening to a cave with very frigid air pouring from it. It was an underground warehouseing storage place. Trucks were coming and going. It was carved from the limestone bluffs and covered nearly 11 acres inside. The year-round ambient temperature is 55 degrees and the warehouse contains refrigerator and freezer units. The air temp seemed much cooler to us as we passed by and seemed to linger for another quarter mile. We did not go into Quincy at all; I was hoping to see the mansions there.

We had a vicious hill after a turn at 44 miles. We were warned to gear down in advance because the grade rose to 14 percent. It seemed almost immediate. On an earlier tour, one rider fell over for lack of preparation for the hill. It was the most difficult hill yet.

Keokuk has a lock and dam system near the hotel. The original lock was constructed nearly 100 years ago. The current one was built from 1952 to 1957. It is 1200 feet long and 110 feet wide. It has a rise of 38 feet. As Rosy, Jordan, and I were having lunch at a restaurant with a river overlook, we saw a tug pushing several barges toward the lock. We walked to the lock after lunch. The river vehicles were in the lock and the water was rising quickly. It takes 20 minutes for the lock to fill and the tug/barges to proceed from there.

There are two unusual bikes on the tour. John owns a Moulton touring bike. It is quite small and has a dual suspension to it. Everyone crowded around his bike when we were in New Orleans. He uses it to commute to the University of Hawaii. The wheels are 20 inches versus the 27 that most ride. Keith owns an ICE Trice QNT trike. He can really move on it and can overtake most of us on the steep uphill climbs. One rider remarked that he was officially old when Keith passed him on our long hill on the way into St Louis.

Day's stats: 64.6 miles, 15.9 mph, 1679 feet climbing.

In Mark Twain's boyhood hometown

After yesterday's long ride, the order of the day was to take today easy for the most part. This was particularly the case after one of the riders was sick all night and morning and worshipped the white porcelain object in the bathroom. Not sure if it was food poisoning or lingering heat exhaustion and electrolyte imbalances. Better safe than sorry though as our immune systems are undoubtedly taxed by the riding, heat, and humidity.

Our ride for today was once again rerouted. Apparently the road we were supposed to go on was destroyed in a big rainstorm a few years ago and has not been repaired. The road just slid down the hillside. This is another sign of the fiscal problems that governments face: too few dollars chasing too many needs. The new route was on pleasant enough rural roads for the most part. We were on Highway 61 for 3+ miles and it was much busier than in the South. It reminded me of the interstate riding with many semis booming by.

Our SAG was in front of the Ralls County Courthouse in the town of New London. The town newspaper was across the street and a reporter came out to take our picture. The county assessor came out to greet us and give us a little history of the town. I chatted with him about his job and my background with Colorado's county assessors. His problems are no different than for assessors in Colorado.

Lots of rolling hills today. One of the pictures shows four rollers over the next 1 1/4 miles. This road was roughly surfaced so we were reluctant to gather speed down the hills. The rollers after the SAG were on smooth roads so we could let it go down those hills. There were 4 sections that had been freshly oiled and chipped sealed. The first one came up abruptly and we were scrambling to slow down and not hit each other as we found our way through it.

We are in Hannibal, MO tonight. As it was just a short ride of 41 miles, we had plenty of time to explore the area where Mark Twain grew up and had the experiences that led to the publication of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Staff kindly provided shuttle rides to the area about 2 miles distant from our lodging for the night.

This place of rest for the evening almost makes last night's stay look like a four-star hotel. We were notified at the SAG that the planned hotel was in a remodelling phase and could not accomodate us. The tour company's worldwide headquarters made apparent last-minute arrangements for this bombed-out looking place and would not upgrade us to a nationally- branded motel across the street. Of course, perhaps they could not accomodate us for the evening.

Highlight of the day: Blasting down rollers and steaming up the other side for as long as possible.

Day's stats: 41.4 miles; 14.1 mph; 2017 feet climbing.

Pictures: Group picture L-R Tom, Bill, John, Pixie, and Keith; Tom in front of Tom Sawyer's white-washed picket fence; rollers.