September 15, 2022
Day Four: Okawville, Illinois to Elsah, Illinois
This was my latest start so far, despite waking up very early. There were several error messages in my email, generated by a couple of different software applications that I wrote and host for customers. So I spent some time remotely accessing my server to see what was happening, with limited success.
Finally, though, I got everything back on the bike, and laboriously transported it down multiple sets of stairs. I don't usually take the panniers off the bike, which makes carrying it with everything loaded a bit tricky.
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It was another nice, cool, sunny morning. Weather has been perfect on this trip so far - although I've heard that temperatures in the mid-90s might be coming back, unfortunately.
I didn't feel like looking around Okawville, since I've seen it before, so after taking a photo of the prominent grain elevator on the edge of town, I left on White Church Road.
In typical rural Illinois fashion, the name of the road is literal. Here's the white church:
I continued on pleasant empty roads for several miles. This time of the day is magical when the sun is out, the temperatures are cool, the humidity is low, and the roads are empty.
I had to cross the Kaskaskia River, which required riding a few miles on a state highway. There was a little traffic, but it was no big deal. The shoulder on the road and the bridge(s) actually seemed wider than when we lived in Illinois - was this a rare case of Illinois improving their roads, instead of letting them crumble? Maybe I was imagining it.
I left the state highway and checked out the village of New Memphis. There wasn't much happening there.
I didn't have a route figured out when I left this morning. My plan was to get to the Mississippi River, and possibly across it today. Now I was suddenly very hungry, though, and wanted hot food. I decided to head for the nearest source of this: A Love's Travel Stop on I-64 that is accessible via an empty chip seal farm road.
The giant Love's sign was visible for miles, rising above the corn fields. For some reason this amused me. The sign was carefully designed and placed for maximum visibility from the interstate. How many people ever saw it from my vantage point?
I ate a couple of extremely greasy, extremely delicious egg-cheese-biscuits along with hash browns and Diet Pepsi at the Hardee's located in the truck stop.
I had a phone call with a customer about a problem they were having, then got back on the road. I decided to head for Lebanon, the small town where Joy and I lived for six years. Since we'd left, the small group of local cyclists there had finally gotten a tiny trail created that links Lebanon to the farm roads to the east.
I arrived at the trail, which is literally only a few hundred feet long, but which removes the need for several miles of otherwise required road riding. A local couple were on their bikes, and I talked to them for a while, catching up what had happened in Lebanon since I'd left in 2018. The gist of it was that long-time locals were still resistant to even the most minor of changes, including this useful little trail. The woman told me she'd lived in Lebanon since 1984, and "They still consider me a transplant."
I quickly rode through Lebanon and biked several miles on country roads to a new bike trail in the next town, O'Fallon.
This was a nice trail, with an interesting new bridge:
I was on the extensive Madison Country Trail system now, which enables pleasurable riding in what would otherwise be a dense, congested, suburban cycling hellscape.
I briefly rode onto a trail extension to a shopping center that used to contain a bike shop. Sadly, it appeared to be closed, and replaced by a different kind of business, one that I had no use for:
The trail finally ended. I rode a few miles on the shoulder of a not-terribly-busy road, then crossed under this odd gate-like structure, into what I always thought of, when I lived in the area, as The Industrial Zone:
South Roxana, population 2,053 is a company town. The company is this enormous, ugly, smoke-belching monstrosity: The Phillips 66 Wood River refinery. It looms above the little town.
I needed to get two miles to next village, Hartford, and the ride onto the Confluence Trail.
Unfortunately I had picked the worst possible time to do this: 3:00 PM, just as the shift change happened at the refinery.
Those two miles were very unpleasant. I pulled off onto the debris-filled gravel shoulder several times to let the workers past.
I arrived in Hartford and immediately rode onto the Confluence Trail.
The Confluence Trail sits up on the levee along the Mississippi River. There are interesting views of both the river, and all the industrial stuff along it.
The trail ended at bustling Alton, population 25,000+
My original "plan", such as it was, was to cross the Mississippi on the wide, debris-laden shoulder of the busy bridge at Alton, then link up to the Katy Trail by riding on several Missouri roads, that were, from my previous experience, a combination of the pretty nice, and the pretty bad.
But as I sat in a park in Alton and looked at my map, I realized I just wasn't up for that today. I'd done 70 miles, and I didn't think I had another 27 in me to reach the next place to stay in Missouri
I didn't have any luck finding a place in Alton, but I found something 13 miles up the river in Elsah: A B&B which was a lot fancier than I required, but which would get me close to the Grafton Ferry, which I'd never tried. Tomorrow was one of only three days the ferry is open, so after I called them and confirmed they were really open tomorrow, I headed up the river.
The Sam Vadalabene bike path connects Alton to Grafton. It's a combination of a rough, barely maintained separated path, and the wide shoulder of the busy river road.
Elsah, population 519, is ultra-quaint. It seems to have some sort of connection the Christian Science religion; Principia College, which the church runs, is nearby.
I ate snacks in the B&B kitchen and boiled water and ate one of the packets of instant potatoes that I'm carrying with me, then retired to my frilly pink room, which was much different than my accommodations last night.
Today's ride: 82 miles (132 km)
Total: 325 miles (523 km)
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| Comment on this entry | Comment | 5 |
You seem to be getting along OK with your route-as-you-go plan, finding empty rural roads and bike trails. It's fun seeing where you end up each night, and how you got there.
Great pictures, as usual, and write-ups that have us right there with you.
Stay safe, especially in this upcoming heat.
Jeff
2 years ago
Really enjoying (and respect) the spontaneity of planning on this trip.
2 years ago
I'm sorry I'm just now replying to your comment. I revisited my journal the last couple of days to add a recap section, and relive some of the memories of what ended up being a fun trip.
Thanks for reading!
Jeff
1 year ago
Thanks for following along on my little trip. I'm glad you enjoyed my humble efforts at documenting it. It's cold here now (cold by Kentucky standards, anyway), and I'm daydreaming about another tour in 2023 when it warms up.
Jeff
1 year ago
Thanks for the heads-up on your added recap sections.
I plan every destination/every turn before I head out. You plan nothing. That impresses me no end! That, along with your daily mileage, your report writing skills, your photography, your unique way of seeing things, . . .
Looking forward to next year's report(s).
Jeff
1 year ago