Day 17 – Carbondale, KY to Farmington, MO

So they say you should enjoy the journey, not the destination. Today, we crossed the Mississippi, which was mostly enjoyable. Otherwise, I’m not sure this part of the journey is something I’ll look back fondly on. Hint: rain is a bummer.

Somehow, when I looked at the weather last night, it looked like we might get a few passing showers but otherwise it would be a nice, cool day. I woke up, got dressed, and went to the lobby of the hotel for breakfast. “Ready to get rained on?” JP asks… You’ve got to be kidding me. We check the radar and sure enough, the low pressure center that was sitting just to our east yesterday was still there. And now it’s ramped up. It’s going to be rain all day. Awesome.

It was only sprinkling when we geared up to leave. You can see below I was all decked out in full rain gear. JP was the same. I honestly thought about taking some rain gear off before we left. Within the first 10 minutes, the sky officially opened up and I was glad to be all dressed up.

So it rained. And rained. and rained. Oh, and there was wind too. We were hoping to put 100 miles in today but that was clearly in jeopardy from the moment we started. Our route took the “Mississippi Levee” path, which while a few miles longer is very flat and runs along the flats near the river. About 20 miles in to the ride, the route cuts down in to the levee area and that’s where things got exciting. There was a flood warning for the area and as more rain fell the situation started to get a bit more tense. As it turns out, a lot of water flows in to the Mississippi and the area near the river is really flat. As we rode through the rain, it was clear there was water places where water normally shouldn’t be… like, right up to the road.

At one point, there was a section of road covered in earthworms…. like you know that smell when you open a container of worms that you bought at a bait shop? Imagine that times 100.. cars running over them, wind blowing the stench around. Seriously, it wasn’t pleasant.

About 35 miles in, JP and I SAG’d our way out of the levee area. The roads were deteriorating and honestly I didn’t want to deal with flooded roads if I didn’t have to. So we got back up on to IL Rt 3. It turns out, that’s a major road for heavy truck traffic going back and forth across the river. As we rode up 3 towards our river crossing, we encountered more and more standing (and running) water on the side of the road. After battling that situation for about 30 minutes, we decided it was too dangerous to be on the roads. Between the rain, wind, blind corners, ponding water, and heavy trucks doing 60+ mph in each direction, it was seriously time to get off the road.

We SAG’d up to Chester IL for lunch. For those that don’t know Chester is the home of Popeye. How do we know? The signs they had everywhere and the statue of Popeye of course!

While we were in the RV talking about next steps, JP said “I’m crossing the river with my bike today even if I have to walk over the bridge.” So that was that. After lunch we jumped on our bikes (and back in to our cold, wet shoes) and headed for the bridge.

It was still raining, it was still windy, and there still more trucks than seemed physically possible, but we rode our butts across the Mississippi river. I’ll be honest, I really didn’t take time to enjoy the scenery… I scooted across that bridge as quick as I could 😉

Here’s the sign as proof. Mr. Blurry Cam at work again.

Safe to say JP was stoked to make it to Missouri. That’s a nice shower cap he’s got, eh?

It’s unfortunate because on a nice day this would probably have been an amazing beautiful ride. But since we’re on a schedule to make it to DefCon and beyond, we can’t really take unexpected rest days. So we pulled the belts tight and went for it. I said at the beginning of this post that I wouldn’t look back fondly on this day. That’s a lie. Days like today are what I’ll remember. It kicked our asses and we didn’t hit the mileage we wanted, but it sure as hell was memorable.

Tomorrow, the weather man says it’ll be cloudy and cool. I’m getting my rain gear ready just in case.

Day 16 – Paducah, KY to Carbondale, IL

Quadruple digits! We officially passed 1,000 miles today. Our reward? Rain and a brisk north wind.

Started out the morning in the MCC and in Art’s car heading over the Ohio. Once again, JP and I agreed on a 7am time to leave the hotel, and once again we were about 20 minutes late 🙂 I think that’s pretty much our rounding error each morning. At this point, we’ll call that “normal”.

We weren’t on the official ACA route at the beginning, so we rode up IL State Route 145 until we hooked up the real route. Rt 145 was a 20 mile shot straight north through southern Illinois. On that 20 mile stretch we had some hills, some wind, some heavy truck traffic, and rain. Some serious rain, actually. Looking at the radar this morning, it was obvious there was a low pressure centered just a few miles to our east and rain was rotating around the center. We were just left of center so that meant we were going to get winds from the north most of the day with intermittent rain showers. And wouldn’t’ you know that “north” was our primary direction today. Here we are optimistically leaving for the day without our rain gear on. That changed within the first hour.

For those readers paying attention, you’ll remember that we actually went in to Illinois yesterday to check the bridge crossings. Today we officially crossed in to the state, so we’ll put the Mr. Blurry Cam photo in this post. Yay! Illinois.

We started the ride in the town of Metropolis. Yep, not kidding. That’s a river town in southern Illinois. And unsurprisingly there’s a Superman museum there. While we were on the road too early to hit the museum, Heidi took the boys to check out the cool statues anyway. Here’s the Man of Steel standing guard over the city (town? hamlet?) of Metropolis.

Our first rally point of the day was in Simpson. Every time someone said “Simpson” at least one of my kids said “Doh!” or “WooHoo!”. So, yeah, they’re clearly my kids. Heidi snapped this photo, once again risking life and limb. But it wasn’t the weather causing issues this time. Nope, it was her own doing. She wanted a good shot of the PO sign, so she stood on top of the rear seat of the MCC and leaned out the door in the rain. Not an OSHA approved shooting position.

 

The rest of the ride was mostly uneventful. The wind stuck around and we had intermittent rain. The last 2 miles were more downhill than up, but there were so many rolling hills you couldn’t really tell. At some point we passed a sign that said “Hilly Terrain” and I wanted to rip it out of the ground. Tomorrow we’ll ride about 25 miles on the banks of the Mississippi, so at least we’ll get some flat riding in. However, tomorrow afternoon is also the start of the Ozarks so I anticipate our flat-landness will be short lived.

Day 15 – Utica, KY to Marion, KY

Well, we’re in Paducah. It should be noted, don’t mock Paducah. I might have poked at this city in yesterday’s post. Unfortunately it exacted its revenge.

Another great day weather wise. It’s hard to argue with the weather we’ve had so far on this ride. It was chilly enough to throw on arm warmers for the first little bit. Today was the flattest day we’ve had since day 2, but the landscape was decidedly different. Farms as far as the eye could see for most of the day.

 

We rallied in Clay KY (about 46 miles in) for lunch. Heidi got there in advance of JP and I  and started setting up shop. Apparently an elderly local had been eyeing the MCC on the way in to town and stopped by to chat about the Airstream.  Heidi gave him a tour of the MCC and showed him all the features. He also mentioned hosting some cyclists a few years back – letting them camp in his yard.  Gotta love small towns.  And who knows, maybe Clay KY will be home to the newest Airstream owner in a few days. 🙂

Lunch was at a park, so the boys were able to get out and stretch their legs. Dax is still not 100% slide safe, but thankfully his brothers are happy to (try to) help.

We finished the ride up in Marion KY. On the ACA route, we’d be crossing the Ohio on a ferry at Cave in Rock. Unfortunately there’s not an available hotel for miles in any direction on either side of the river. So we went for the next closest Ohio crossing that was near the route, Paducah. Paducah isn’t really “on” route but we can get started just across the Ohio tomorrow and ride north to rejoin the ACA route. I was hopeful to be able to ride right out from the hotel, but that would mean we’d have to find a bridge that was bike friendly to go across the river. So before we hit the hotel, we decided to try the bridges to see if they were passible.

First off, we hit a huge traffic jam on the way in to town on the interstate. One lane was closed and traffic was backed up for over a mile at a total crawl. We finally got off the highway and checked out the bridge on US-45 over the Ohio. Turns out it’s a 2 lane steel deck bridge that must be about a mile long. It’s narrow enough to have a 25 mph speed limit. Totally not safe for bikes.

 

Then we decided to loop back and check the interstate bridge on the off chance there was a sidewalk or bike path on it or something. We hit another work zone heading across the bridge. This one actually stopped traffic for nearly 30 minutes.  So we sat, and sat, and sat on the bridge… Not only were we only 4 miles from the hotel, it was clear there was no way to get a bike across this bridge. So the trip across the river was a total bust. We spent well over an hour verifying that there’s no way to ride a bike across the river. Paducah was angry that I mocked it, and it returned the favor by mocking me.

We also learned that below 10mph, our GPS will give us speeds at 1/10th mph resolution. Cuz that’s useful.

There’s a rail bridge to the west. Maybe we’ll try that in the morning.

 

Tomorrow we start riding in Metropolis IL. I would say something like “Metropolis is not aptly named” but I’m afraid that would come back to bite me.

Day 14 – Sonora, KY to Whitesville, KY

Welp, we’re on the Ohio River tonight. We don’t cross it until Monday morning, but the landscape has changed and you can almost smell the Mississippi. Tuesday we’ll cross the Big River and be in Missouri. Crazy. The crew is making good progress.

The morning started with a ride in the MCC up I-65 to Sonora. As we were unpacking, a local rider cruised by and asked us about the ride. I think we were more interested in the fact he was riding a fixie. I can count on my one hand the number of recreational (ie: not TransAmerica) cyclists I’ve seen on this ride… to see someone on a fixie in rural KY was pretty awesome. Apparently he had just got it and was getting the hang of it. Good luck, man. I’m definitely jealous of your ride 🙂

All in all the ride was uneventful. It was a beautiful day for riding (high 70’s/low 80’s, some cloud cover, and a light breeze from the west). The landscape is starting to flatten out even more, tho we ran in to a pretty serious climb when we crossed the Rough River. It was one of those “ran out of gears and just start mashing pedals” type of climbs. The map says it’s 300′ in elevation and I think we picked most of that up in a 1/4 mile. That climb definitely got JP’s attention.  😉 But he persevered and made it to the top. He’ll be climbing the Alps before too long.

As we ride the TA route, we get a lot of knowing waves from cars that pass us. While we haven’t seen a bunch of TA riders, it’s clear that the locals along the route have seen their fair share and know what we’re going through. It’s always nice as you’re climbing a hill or sweating bullets to have a little encouragement from passers-by. And sometimes we see signs letting us know there are cyclist-friendly folks around. We ran in to a little shop outside of Eastview KY that had the following sign up.

TA cyclists can get a bite to eat and camp in their yard. Very cool. We spent a few minutes talking to the proprietor who was very interested in our story. Apparently he was having a bluegrass band in tonight and was hopeful some cyclists would be around to enjoy it. Unfortunately we’re about 60 miles downrange from him and can’t make it. Maybe some other westbound folks are there tonight…

JP is still a bit beat up from all the climbing in Western VA and Eastern KY. He ground out 46 miles and called it a day. I pushed through to our end point at Whitesville and hitched a ride in the MCC to the hotel in Owensboro. After we got settled in, Heidi and I cruised around town a bit to get a feeling for the place. We ended up at Breck’s Bike Shop looking for some Chamois Butt’r. (for those that don’t know, Chamois Butt’r and products like it are designed to help lubricate your skin so that long rides in the saddle don’t turn in to a “pain in the ass”. Oh yeah, I went there).

We pulled in to the parking lot at 4:02. Right as we were pulling in, a couple of cars were pulling out. I was afraid that they had just closed, and indeed that was the case. However, upon seeing the MCC emblazoned with all the logos and URL’s, one of the cars backed up. It was one of the Breck’s staff who had just closed the shop for the day. He asked what we needed, and I obliged . He jumped out with a smile and opened the store back up for us. Very, super cool. It’s fantastic to go to an LBS that goes the extra mile like that. If you’re ever in the Owensboro area and need something bike related, stop on by Brecks 🙂 Note: they’re getting a fancy new roof on the building, but I imagine the crane will be gone by the time you get there.

Also in Owensboro, we saw the World’s Largest Sassafras Tree. Yes, that’s a thing. Apparently it was saved from being cut down by a “local woman with a shotgun”. Heidi risked life and limb for the photo below. Seriously, a storm was blowing in and the first photo she took was blurry because she was getting pushed around by the wind.

That’s it for the day. Time to fill the water bottles for tomorrow and hit the sack. We’re taking a bit of a detour tomorrow because we can’t find anywhere even close to the route to spend the night. Our next update will be from Paducah. Yep. Paducah. I’m stoked to finally go to Paducah.