Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Nothing hard is ever easy: A bicycle tour attempt.

Holy shizizzle! Following winds today, good chance of getting wet this afternoon...

...then lows in the fifties through the 4th. :shock:

I never have tried to layer nylon to stay warm, and with my raingear as well oughtta be able to sleep out OK.

I'll let folks know how it goes.

Birdwatcher

Damn Birdy, weather map looks like your getting nailed.

Tremendous suggestion for an excellent road trip/narrative in progress.

Mr. Bin???

Continued safe travels Bird-man...

+3!
How about it Rick?

Update for Birdwatcher:

He is alive and well in Jonesboro, IL. No internet access, but enough cell coverage to get a text message out.

That's all the news that's fit to print. For now

Ed

Thanks Ed, I thought he might have got caught in that gully washer last night.

Yup, I'm up here in Arkansas on business and had to drive in that mess. Glad he missed it, too.

Hopefully, he'll find a place with internet access and give us some more pictures to admire.!

Ed

The innernet at last Amazing how many ways you can avoid it on a bicycle. PIcsand narrative to wait until my next day off I guess. Meanwhile here's the crib notes.

OK, I'm losing track but day 14 was the day before yesterday when I left Corning AR heading North headed for Poplar Ridge MO.

Poplar Ridge was surprisingly large, took an hour of rolloing up and down hills alongside traffic at noon to get through, after which I headed out of town on highway �W�. then �KK� towards Lake Wapello. Hills again, entirely unexpected, steep as back east. At 1:30pm for the first time on this trip I was actually overcome by heat and had to lay out under a tree for 30 minutes. Got up after a bit and �rode long, rode gentle� to Lake Wapelo, clouds from a mondo heavy-duty front building in.

Once I crossed the dam headed west to my relief the terrain leveled out. I dont mind hills, I really dont, but they take time. The rain caught me at 5pm just south of Puxelo (??) but the Lord provides, and right there was a biker bar owned by a longhaired, tough and exceedingly capable individual named Art. We sat and talked for two hours as torrential rain and wind came and went outside. Art talked of the troubles and travials of keeping the druggies and meth-cookers at bay on the one hand, and appeasing the locals and the sheriff on the other.

7 pm the skies cleared, I declined Art's offer of a roof and a meal, hard to describe, but saddle time is everything in this endeavor, and I had ninety minutes before dark. Funny episode on the way; I'm riding down road, mean-looking chocolate lab runs out to chase me, close enough to make me stop and get off bike.. Owner calls dog, dog ignores him. Owner tries to chase dog back into the yard, dog runs around him to growl and bark at me (turns out it was his daughter's dog). Owner gets so mad he throws big rock at dog, a near miss. Dog, being a lab, retrieves it

Duck Creek WMA is BEAUIIFUL. Just as its getting dark I roll in. There's a good natured gentleman named Dan sitting there at a picnic table. His truck had been towed (water pump?) he was waiting for his daughter to get him from Cape Girardeau, 50 miles away. We have a good conversation, my bug repellent was a lifesaver for both of us as it got dark. His daughter and fiance showed up, nd after they left I took to the tent. A lot of mosquitoes, but not as rabid as te ones back in Arkansas.


More....

Day 15 (yesterday) 70 mile day.

I always sleep best outside. Stopped and at breakfast at the corner store in Arab Station MO where everybody local eats. Headed east over mostly level terrain to Advance MO "One of the Friendliest Places in America" said the sign. I must have missed all the friendly people I SHOULD have stocked up at the convenience store since it would be almost the last one I'd see for 40 miles.

Amazing how many corners around there don't have store on 'em. I was clear to the outskirts of Cape G. when I finally came across a store specializing in black rifles (Black Cat??? I got pics). Being interested I went in and looked around hoping also to get water.

Turns out funnily dressed guys on bikes who ain't bathed in two days weren't there target audience and I was told "NO" when I asked about a restroom, they did give real clear directions how to get on down the road.

A ways on down the road I stopped to ask directions at a Massey -Ferguson dealer and was ignored for a whole five minutes while standing by the counter, so I watched the Massey-Ferguson promo videos above the counter until the guy finally asked what I wanted. He seem surprised that all I wanted was directions.

It had taken forever to get through Poplar Ridge and I was expecting the same of Cape G., but suddenly there was the bridge, nary a convenience store or fast-food place at all along the route. Finally came across a convenience store right before the bridge but it was packed so I passed and crossed over the Mississippi into Illinois.

No worries I thought, the sign said East Cape Girardeau across the river. Except there is no East Cape Girardeau practically speaking, just a strip joint, which was closed. So I take highway 3 north. 'Nother 12 miles up highway 3, NOTHING, no gas stations, no stores. Finally I stopped in at a bar for water and a beer.

'Nother hour later I was on 146 east towards Jonesboro/Anna, IL.

Hadn't ate since Arab Station that morning and it was now 4pm. Stopped in a Trail of Tears rest area (thousands of Cherokees had camped in the area in the winter of '39/'40) and had cereal w/salt and water.

Rolled into Anna and was beat for the day. Checked into the Lincoln Motel (one of the Lincoln/Douglas Debates took place there). $40 a night but no internet.

More...

Day 16 (today)....

Southern Illinois ain't flat, or rather there's an east/west escarpment that cuts across the bottom.

Rolling hill from Anna east to Vienna IL. Pretty country but a heavily travelled, narrow two-lane road, no shoulder. Slow progress, me having to stop and get entirely off of any pavement every time a truck passed, which was often. Two and one half hours to cover 17 miles

Now I'm on Hwy 45 in Stonefort IL. Thought Id be in Evanston (??) by this time but a series of steep climbs up the escarpment slowed me up some I guess. The picturesque and friendly general store here has the internet, so here I am.

I'm cycling north into a steady cool breeze but apparently to hear the locals talk I oughtta be grateful, usually its hot and humid here by now.

The terrain just flattened out so I expect to make better time this afternoon. If I roll at 2:30pm that will be six hours of daylight left.

I will say I feel for these folks. Southern Illinois is nothing like Chicago, this is all Red State country.

If I don't get on the 'net I'll be heading up 45 then Hwy 1 towards Vincennes IN up the eastern side of the State. I was hoping to be in Vincennes by tomorrow night, dunno how that will work out.

On a trip like this you get on the bike in the morning and the only thing you know for sure about how the day will go is that wherever you end up at the end of the day is gonna be entirely different from where you are now.

Still got pics, I'll post 'em when I can.

Birdwatcher

Mike, your doing good Sir.
Keep at the blog when you can.

Bump.

Hang in there, Mike! You've got me thinking that you're actually going to make it--don't disappoint us.

Live update Mc Donalds, Carmi IL, 9:25pm 86 mile day.

Today felt like I was riding in molasses, everything took forever what with the hills and the headwind. Rolled into Harrisburg at 4:30pm. Anytime its already 4:30pm and he's only got 50 miles for the day Birdwatcher is not a happy camper. So I stopped, wolfed down a fried chicken breast I had bought earlier in the day, drank some water and set out to cover some miles now that the wind had died some and the terrain was flatter.

A fine, wide divided highway the first ten miles up 45 to Eldorado (in Illinois? who came up with that one?) then the road got narrow two lanes like before with no shoulder. A real PITA with me having to stop and get off of the road a bunch of times but hey, the object is to keep that front wheel rolling.

Further north and the road got quieter and prettier. Passed the booming megopolis of Norris City (which weren't of course) and pondered the sobering prospect that I might have another seventy miles of no facilities until I crossed over the Wabash to Vincennes. Seemed possible looking at how small the towns were on the map.

"Ahem" nature was really calling, and I was gonna have to stop and walk off into the woods but just then Gods sent a bridge construction zone with a porta potti, it had tp and even hand sanitizer. CLean living will do that for ya

I was tired but... my legs were working, all systems were a go so I pressed on. Rolled into Carmi about dark and.... oh manna from Heaven! A 24 hour Wal-Mart!!!!

If the Bent brothers would have opened one of these instead of just a trading post on the Arkansas back then they woulda cleaned house., changed the geopolitics of a whole region.

So here I is, in Carmi, in McDonalds faced with the prospect of �stealth camping� ie. Finding a place where you bother no one and no one bothers you till morning. I do NOT want to stay in a motel again so soon. There is a campground listed on the outskirts of town. I'll bet everyone's asleep already. I'll go see.

Just about 67 miles from here to Vincennes IN, hope to slam dunk another state line tomorrow.

Birdwatcher

You'll do it. Keep at it.

Birdwatcher, you are a top-shelf stud. Keep going. As an avid cyclist, something like this is on my bucket list as well.

Keep hydrating and eating...looks like you're not struggling with hospitality...stay safe and keep your tire pressure up!

Sounding good, Mike. Keep it going!

Actually there was an attractive blonde who had her own Harley that some guy had given her who was telling people that very thing maybe 25 years ago. Globemaster can corroborate the story

Birdwatcher Update, Day 17. Mc Donalds. Mt Carmel IL, 12:00pm

Left the McDonlad's last night around 10pm to discover I no longer had a bandanna, I had it when I arrived. It was a cool one, with spiders on it, a relic of my motorcycle period from 20 years back.

Dunno what happened to it, I think I left it on my bike, thats where I usually left it along with my gloves.

More than just an inconvenience, I need one under hat or helmet, so nothing for it but to backtrack to Wal-Mart. Close to 11 pm leaving Wal-mart, set out through the dark streets in search of campground.

No dice, so I headed out of town, saw a cornfield where the corn was set back a ways from the highway, cut across the grass, lay the bike down, covered it with my blue cotton bedsheet to hide all the reflective stuff, pitched the tent and crashed out, within view of but out of the headlight glare of passing cars.

First light at 5am here, as much an artifact of the vagaries of the time zones as it was of latitude I imagine. I dont mind this stealth camping, I like sleeping outside, but to awaken in the ammonia stench of yesterday's sweat troubles me.

Not much to do but ride on, beautiful morning.

One hour and forty five minutes later I crossed under I 64, where there was a Subway opening in 15 minutes. All along I had been wearing the same clothes, washing them every evening, putting them on wet and letting them quickly dry. It works, except I weren't about to wash my stuff in the restroom sink so I changed clothes instead, and now for the first time am hauling dirty laundry.

Rolled out after a leisurely breakfast and resumed heading north at 8:30 am.

I like to read small town newspapers. Corning AR (pop. 8,000) for example has more than 25 churches, 400 kids in their free lunch program, the state championship youth sporting clays team (477 out of 500) and a recent high school grad just premiered a indie horror movie featuring an actress from New York.

The news in the Carrier Mills/Harrisburg/Eldorado newspaper was appalling. A litany of meth-fueled arrests, burglaries and assaults, white on white crime.

Around 10am the country flattened out and a steady north wind kicked in, slowing my northbound progress, nothing to do but gear down and be patient. 24 miles from here north to Hwy 50, where I turn right and ride 11 miles to cross the bridge to Vincennes. Into the wind I figure that 24 miles fo be a three hour ride.

An unfortunate incident a little bit ago and some observations: Pulled into a convenience store here to buy milk to use with my cereal/oatmeal (if you do not eat high fiber stuff on these things you may never crap once the whole trip), the store was crowded. Rode away and didn't get 100 yards before I realized my wallet wasnt on the bike in the handlebar bag.

Turned right around. No luck, it was gone. Left, dropped or fallen out I dunno.

Fortunately I had split everything just in case of such an eventuality and had a second State ID (my CHL) another credit card, a second ATM card and 100 dollars in cash on my bike. Called and cancelled the other credit card so I'm good to go with the loss of maybe 80 dollars in cash and minor hassles replacing stuff when I get home. And of course no emergency back up now.

But it brings up the question of why I brung the wallet at all?

Habit I suppose. As it is all I have and all I need are three pieces of plastic; my ID, a credit card and my ATM card. That and some cash.

Same thing with my keys. It was the strangest thing leaving home my car and work keys, bringing only door keys for when I get home. A keyless existence, imagine!

Even then I carried the keys in my handlebar bag for a few days before realizing I wasn't gonna need them at all

Anyways, barring any more unfortunate happenstances looks like Indiana today fer sure

Birdwatcher

Mike...you're a frikken idiot doing all of this in the heat of the summer.

Next year, let me get you a train pass.


PS...all way very cool,man!