If you reslly want to figure out if the KKK's values represent Christianity, I suggest you read the New Testament and see if they are compatible, instead of what someone with an agenda writes. I don't put much value in someone's opinion that knows nothing about their subject.

I saw a lot of stuff from the early part of your journal that was familiar to me from my Mississippi River tour. I even stayed in the same Holiday Inn near the New Orleans airport, and I rode backwards to explore the city like you did. On my tour, I stayed on the east side of the river all the way to Muscatine (except for quick overnight excursions to Cape Girardeau and St. Louis) so it's been interesting to read about your hilly ride on the west side. Now that you've crossed back into Illinois, I clearly remember that huge mansion outside of Warsaw, but I didn't bother to learn more about it as you did. I just assumed it was the home of some rich guy.

Like you, I thought Nauvoo was really interesting. I camped at the state park there, but had I known about the Mormon cabins, I'd have considered staying there. Did you venture into Joseph Smith's well-preserved village? Most notable to me was that they've whitewashed his polygamist history.

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

I've seen 18 deer from my stand in Southern Arkansas while reading your journal this morning. I'm way behind.

Had to chuckle... Saw a dime at an intersection but too much traffic... Yeah, done that so many times bike commuting and touring. With my cycling now being almost all on cycle paths, I rarely see money. My found money can from before I retired (08) has over $50 in it. Most of the bulk is pennies, some almost unrecognizable due to being ground off by tires. Best find ever was $5 bill!

Ugh. Dogs. You're handling it better than I would have.

Jon, now you're really bringing back the memories. We were taking continuous splitspoon samples to a depth greater than 100 feet. As the Inspector I had to take the splitspoon, open it, take a jar sample, then clean up the spoon and reassemble it for the next use. There was no way to do this without my hands getting wet - and it was subfreezing weather - I had to then write down notes about the sample for the log, sometimes my fingers were so cold they could barely hold the pen. Every morning the rig pump lines were frozen and blowtorches were used to thaw them out - this often took an hour. Every afternoon we did our best to drain the lines of water so they wouldn't freeze overnight, but it never seemed to work. We were on top of levees and exposed to the wind. We got a "Chicago Tent" for the Failing 1500 drill rig that was made to provide shelter while leaving the back open so you could run out the drill rods, but the wind was so bad one night that it destroyed it. That winter was when I became a coffee drinker. Woody, the driller, informed me that it was the Geologist's job to fire up the Coleman stove and make coffee every morn at 09:00. I was so cold that winter that I would have drank hot motor oil - which is what the drill crew thought of my coffee, although they used more colorful language to describe it!

Jon, that's hilarious! I had been thinking of some joke to make about Missouri highway signs, but your real example is even better.

Jon, I considered a north to south route for weather reasons. The main reason I decided on south to north is that I prefer to get the big city (New Orleans, Baton Rouge) riding out of the way first and then enjoy the rural wooded areas. It's also a couple of hours less driving for Anita to come and fetch me if I end in Iowa. The October temperature isn't really too cold yet, even in Iowa - except maybe a little in the morning.

Jon, I'm talking about my people too. But we're in the bottom 10 of most everything, especially the important stuff like education. We can't fix a problem until we recognize that we have it - kind of like being an alcoholic or drug addict, the 1st step is to admit the problem exists. And I agree that these folks have good hearts (most of them anyway).

love it

Hey, hey, hey, you are talking about my people!! You will find the far right folks there (just as the cities will have more of the far left) but most are the salt of the earth and will always help their fellow man. They have the education of life and reminds me of this song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cQNkIrg-Tk

As an engineer, I would have expected you to have gone north to south. I would expect it to be cooler on the north end when starting and gradually the cooler weather would move south...you must be thinking like a Geologist on this trip by ignoring the temperatures...or maybe you want to experience the extreme heat at the beginning and the cold at the end so you can prove your toughness :-).

Here was the sign on the roads to get to my house when I was working on Clearwater Dam...well apparently I cannot post a photo. Directions to my subdivision included drive down PP highway until you get to TT highway...you cant make that stuff up.

I really like Cape Girardeau and the cable stayed bridge you drove over is beautiful. South of Cape is East Prairie and they have a bike ride event each year called Tour De Corn. That was my wife's first organized bike ride event. She chose it because it bragged of being pancake flat https://www.tourdecorn.com/about.php.

Thankfully I have never been behind a drill rig in snow.

It is now the "United" States?
But I am not so sure?