Beautiful beyond words

This blog posting is way overdue. However, it comes at a very good time. My trip is over and I am entering this in my brother and sister-in-law's incredibly beautiful new home, which they designed and have built (with a lot of help) themselves. So the end of the trip is in this fantastic structure and the ending of the trip has a beauty all it's own. I am frankly surprised I made it and feel as good as I do. The satisfaction of having accomplished it and of being here to see what Jack and Linda have wrought is quite overwhelming. But I digress and there is lots to tell of the times since I last was able to tell you about the trip.

I left my adequate digs in Ozara and rode through some more hilly and lovely country in Missouri until the last downhill on to the flood plain of the Mississippi River near Chester, IL. The day was fantastic at the beginning but became hot and humid, as were most of the days of the trip. Crossing the bridge at Chester can be a challenge if there is traffic but since I was doing it on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, there was none. Only one car passed me as I rode the half mile or so across the river. I stopped at the little park and tourist welcome center on the IL side of the bridge to rest, eat a banana and note the impressive flow of the river as it passed by the bridge pilings. As usual it is a long up hill ride from any river or stream and this was no exception in Chester. Got to the top and took a picture of the 'Home of Popeye' sign and rode on. The riding was good to excellent and the hills were more civilized than those in Missery. While sections of Missouri are beautiful, the hills are tough.

One section of this ride to finish in Carbondale, through Wine Hill was especially nice. You approach the area on a long gradual curving uphill with small country churches ahead and then take a turn to a long down hill and flat section of riding which was just a treat. I stopped in Ava for lunch with about 20 or so miles to go to Carbondale. Had a Sunday buffet of meatloaf, green beans and mashed potatoes. Good country cookin'. Left town anticipating my arrival for a rest day.

This was a very frustrating section of road. It was not too hilly. The road was smooth as silk, nearly brand new. The problem was that they had put a shoulder of about 3 ft on the road, enough to be adequate to ride and feel comfortable with passing traffic, but RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE SHOULDER WAS A RUMBLE STRIP!! DID YOU HEAR ME ILLINOIS HIGHWAY ENGINEERS? Put the strip, if you must have one, next to the white line to be a barrier between vehicles and cyclists, not down the middle where it forces cyclist in to the roadway. DUMB. So there.

Murpheysboro, IL was the next obstacle between me and my rest day. It is only about 6 miles from Carbondale but it seemed much longer. I was really in need of a rest. My legs were burning with each uphill. I felt I had no power left. I had not had a day off for two weeks, although some days were short, none were particularly easy. My map directions through Murph were a little hard to follow, so that was frustrating. Then, while on a longish uphill section outside of the town I had my most difficult run in with dogs. Two big ones came to greet me and they were not looking for a pat on the head. One was named Maverick and I did not catch the other name. No name was the more aggressive one. I have found that almost always, unless you are on a downhill and can outrun a dog, the best approach is to slow to a stop or nearly stop and just say, very authoritatively, NO!. Most dogs are not really aggressive and they respond. These two did also but as soon as I would move they would be right back. Their owner was in the yard. After a few attempts to leave slowly, with barking and chasing in each case, I told her I would wait until she put them in the house. She said they did not go in the house. Well, until you tie them up then. I do not tie them up, she said. I told her I was on a public roadway. She said there was no law that she needed to restrain her dogs. What a jerk. Finally I was able to move slowly away. The last frustration of the day was that my map directions were off by about 2 miles for the turn to go to Carbondale. Finally got there and rode through town to my Super 8 motel, believing I would have a compute and could do all the stuff I needed to do. No computer but that made for an even more restful rest day. As I was arriving and registering, a group of 4, 3 guys and a gal arrived as well. They too were cycle touring, cross country, east to west and were taking a rest day as well. Turned out they were the group who had voted another rider I met earlier in the day off their group. I really did not pursue that story. Not my issue.

The rest day was Memorial Day. I thought there would be nothing to do and no chance to get some things done like a beard trim and haircut. Well, I was immediately across from the big mall in Carbondale and there was a haircutter open and plenty of airconditioned space to walk around in. I had a great rest day. Only disappointment was I could not find a postcard so I could send some to let some folks know where I was. And of course, no computer to use.

When I left on Tuesday I was uncertain how my legs would feel after not riding for a day. I was pleasantly surprised and felt stronger than ever. It was good too because I had some challenging road. The countryside was very nice. One road I remembered from 2005 was Wolf Creek Rd, for two reasons. Hills and long horned cattle. In IL! Who knew? I remembered the long horns and it seemed like the same one was standing next to the fence as I rode by. The hills are interesting because they roll on one after another, short, steep hills for at least two miles. The road is straight so you see them all lined up in front of you waiting to greet you.

That night I stayed in Golconda, IL on the Ohio River. I found a place which turned out to be houses which were the homes of lock and dam workers when a lock was located there. It is gone now but the town businesses bought and restored them and use them for vacation rentals now. It was very nice and I felt good to support a small town's attempt to stay alive. Had a double bacon cheeseburger at the Sweetwater Tavern that night. Do not know whatever possessed me to do that. After a hot hard day it went down pretty easy though.

The next day was the rather shorter ride in to Cave In Rock, IL where I was to meet Jim Smith so we could ride across KY to Berea together. Made another stop which I had made in 2005 in Elizabethtown, IL, again right on the Ohio R. Had a nice breakfast in the cafe, talked to an old-timer down at the pavilion on the river and got some good stories. It was another hot humid day and thunderstorms were predicted for the afternoon. Met two westbound riders who told me that the campground at Cave In Rock S.P. was over-run with mosquitos. That was disappointing to hear since Jim and I planned to camp. I arrived before Jim in town and went to the park lodge which rents cabins. They were full so I called the motel in town. $34/night. I had a 'you get what you pay for feeling' but felt it was the best option and rode there, forgetting to leave my phone number with the cabin people in case of a cancellation. Got to the motel, took a room, sat in its musty smelly air and got the idea to call the cabin people again. They did have cancellations and I ate the $30 I paid for the motel room and took off for the park just as the big T-storm approached. As I rode in to the park there was Jim in front of me. I called him and told him to follow me and we rode through the start of the rain storm to get registered. Cabins were great. Storm passed and next day was great as well. We took the ferry across the Ohio to KY, rode to Marion for a great breakfast and then on to Sebree where I had stayed in the First Baptist Church bicyclists hostel in 2005. Had a great stay there. Met 3 others who were east to westers, father and son from Holland and Keith from Colorado. Had some nice exchanges with them about their experieces which had been uniformly positive. One such experience had occurred the evening before when a couple who tried to connect with them but it did not work out to stay at their place, came to their campground, picked them up, took them back to their house for dinner and then took them back to the campground. We took their name, gave a call and made plans to stay with them the next night.

Beth and Garry Feltus are two of most generous and welcoming people I have ever met. They both love cycling and they have a cabin on the farm they are building which can accommodate traveling cyclists. They moved from New Jersey a few years ago and are working to make something good on a farm in rural KY. We rode over some extra hills to get there but it was worth it. Wonderful dinner, conversation, Yuengling beer, breakfast and best of all a ride in a truck to get us back on route and several miles ahead of our schedule. Got us to a point where we could make it to Bardstown the next day. We had a fun ride down a long downhill in to Howardstown and then a couple big hills in to Bardstown. Learned at a convenience store that there was a Bluegrass festival at a campground we considered and that cinched it for us. Jim loves Bluegrass. It was fun.

Next day was on to Harrodsburg past the Lincoln birthplace and homestead park sites and a fine day of riding. It was cloudy to start and rained later and then a cold front pushed through which promised to make our last day of riding the most pleasant yet with sun and high of 80.

So it was. A fantastic day of riding. Finishing with the 2 mile climb up Big Hill out of Berea to Jack and Linda's. I sit here now in their wonderful home with a view of the ridge beyond and purple and pink skies as the sun sets.

This has been a great trip. Think I will stop here as I am about out of gas for today and can add more thoughts later.

Sorry this is so long.

More later.