My Surly Is My Porsche

May 2, 2015

Pere Marquette State Park, Illinois

I don't very often take a day off from cycling. Instead, I take short days and today was one of those short days. Most of it was spent on the bike trail from Alton to the Pere Marquette State Park. It is officially called a bike trail but in actuality most of it is nothing more than a glorified shoulder alongside Highway 100. Whatever one wants to call the trail, it had some of the best wide open Mississippi River views of my trip. And to my right were steep hillsides with hardwood forests and sandstone cliffs.

. . . and bluffs to my right. That's how it was for most of my two hours on the road today.

I also saw quite a few houses on stilts. Flood protection, I assume.

The sunny sky, the minimal breeze, the sparkling river, and the 80-degree temperature combined to provide an almost perfect day for riding a bike on this trail, yet I only counted five riders who were pedaling their bikes. On the other hand, I'd estimate I saw more than 200 bikers who used gasoline engines to propel their bikes. More interestingly, I saw a group of nine Porsche drivers. MORE PORSCHES THAN BICYCLES?????!!!!!

They passed me, one after another, single file in the slow lane. I presume they were going at or near the speed limit because they were getting passed by Fords and Chevys and Harleys in the other lane. I couldn't safely look into the Porsches to see the drivers, but I'm guessing they were wearing their driving gloves, ascots, and berets, with their no-limit credit cards tucked safely in their thick wallets. No doubt each driver looked with pity upon the poor bicycle rider moving along at one-fifth their speed while lugging his possessions in bags attached to his wretched mode of transportation.

I shouldn't be so judgmental. They like their sports cars in the same way as I like my bike. I admit Porsches are excellent cars--but they're still cars.

The state park is situated at the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Illinois River, but the campground doesn't have a view of either one of them. Speaking of the campground, I almost puked when I rode into it and saw row after row after row of tightly-packed motorized recreational camping vehicles. Fortunately the road went past that area and led to some dispersed camping for tents only. Nice!

I spent the first part of the afternoon reading the St. Louis newspaper, then I set off on a hike. Before I got up into the bluffs, however, I discovered the beautiful guest lodge built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's. I had to check it out. A wedding was about to begin so I made myself comfortable in a big, cushy chair and watched from the back of the room.

This life-sized chess board was inside the lodge.

The couple looked so happy. It took all of the stoicism I possess to fight back the tears--and I didn't even know them.

Shortly after the wedding, these girls played a game of chess. I should have challenged the winner even though I haven't played chess since high school.

Please, Father Marquette, don't hit me with that thing!

Today's ride: 21 miles (34 km)
Total: 983 miles (1,582 km)

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