June 23, 2005

First the cold and rain, then the headwinds, next the heat.

A couple of days ago while on the road I told Nick, “Well, it should be good from here on.” He replied, "Nope, first the cold and rain in Montana, then the headwinds in North Dakota and Minnesota, next we’ll get the heat.” I replied, “Watch out you’ll jinx us!” He was right the heat began in earnest today. The winds were out of the west but that was no help in the morning as we were going primarily south. The day’s plan was to get as far as we could in Illinois so as to make the tomorrow a reasonable day as we meet up with Tim Dearborn then.

The morning was slow as there were still some moderate hills. The cross winds were not much of a factor. We got a pretty late start and it was hazy hot and humid which slows things down. We decided to stop for our second breakfast after about twenty miles, as the next option was another twenty. Forty miles is way too far on a banana, some gatoraide, and five or six oatmeal packets. We had to go ¾ of a mile off the route to where there was a place to eat. Nick grumbled a bit about having to ride out of our way just to eat. We went over a bridge to an island on the Mississippi River called Sabula. The restaurant was not much to look at but we both ordered French toast, two eggs over easy with bacon, and a side order of whole-wheat toast. The breakfast was perfect! The French toast was lightly browned, the bacon was crisp but not burnt, and the extra large eggs were “over easy” not cooked to little or too much. The whole-wheat toast was toasted to a light brown and was lightly buttered. When we walked into the place we were expecting another greasy spoon. Boy, were we surprised with the quality of the meal. I should have looked around a bit more when I first walked in and saw the home baked pies in the glass cabinet. It would have given me a clue to expect more from the meal. Nick and I both agreed that it was the best breakfast on the trip. Sure the pancakes in Montana were real good, but with this breakfast everything was prepared to perfection. We told the waitress how good the meal was and when an older woman came over who appeared to be the owner, we told her as well. She beamed and her eyes glistened with the compliment. She said we should stop back some time. My reply: “That will probably happen!”

We asked another patron about the roads to Clinton, IA and in Illinois and for the first time we got an answer from someone who I thought we could believe. He was obviously a trucker as not only did he tell us how many hills were left but also described them.

We rode to Clinton, IA for lunch and crossed over the Mississippi River into Illinois, but not before taking another break to avoid riding in the heat of the afternoon between one and three o’ clock. We had our first ice cream break in Clinton.

Last view of the Mississippi

The land in Illinois is very flat. We were expecting a big climb to get over the bluffs just after crossing the river, but as it is the bluff on the Illinois side is about ten miles away from the river and is a gradual rise of only a couple hundred feet.

Illinois Farm

Nick had another mechanical issue with his bike. The non-drive bottom bracket nut loosened and pedaling caused it to bind against the crank arm. Since we are not carrying a crank puller or any bottom bracket tools we had to improvise a tool system to tighten it as best we could. These mechanical issues take a lot of time when they pop up.

It's a hot one!

The temps were in the upper 90’s and lower 100’s and it was humid. We made good time after getting into Illinois because of the winds and the terrain but still had a good number of miles to go. We set a time target of 6:30 to start looking for a place to stay. It was close to 8:00 by the time we found a campground with a long dirt road (about a mile and a half) as the entrance.

We didn’t hang our food, as it didn’t look necessary. A raccoon snagged a gel pack from one of the side pockets of my front bag and I had to bring the pannier bags into the tent to avoid future problems. The raccoon came back a couple of times. Shining my light on him and tapping the ground a couple of times seemed to do the trick. Not a good’s night sleep though as I was imagining the raccoon eating through the tent to get at the food.

Jim

Cycledog (Ride the extra mile!!)

© 2005 - JNS

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