Day 26 - May 7 - Hannibal, MO to Nauvoo, IL - Crossing the T.....Part One

Day 26 - May 7 - Hannibal, MO to Nauvoo, IL

Dodged the Bullet Again

John’s Story

I watched the Oklahoma City radar until 10:00 p.m., but it seemed the storms were going to pass just north of the city, so I gave it up and went to sleep. Carol tells me it was a windy light show, and it finally rained some at 11:30. So, Oklahoma City dodged the bullet.

Thunder woke me up in Hannibal at 3:30 a.m. I checked the radar. Heavy storms but not severe. And the rain was over by the time we got on the road at 7:45 or so this morning. So we dodged a bullet as well.

Pretty impressive line of storms, but we were inside, thank goodness, though the pitter patter of rain drops on the tent might have been soothing. 😬

The long hill out of downtown Hannibal was really not as bad as it could have been. We stopped at a convenience store about half way up to gather a few provisions for the road. The next store of any kind was over 50 miles in our future.

We crossed the Mississippi River for the last time on this tour. We spent very little time on the road in Missouri on this trip. We crossed from Illinois to Cape Girardeau for the night and recrossed the next morning. We cross to St. Louis to get to Lois’s house in St. Charles and crossed back to Illinois the next morning on the Golden Eagle ferry. We crossed the third time to spend our rest day in Hannibal and were back in Illinois first thing this morning.

Back to the Land of Lincoln. We’ll be here until we head for home on Friday.

We cross the Mississippi on the shoulder of I-72 and we’re immediately spit off at the first exit. We crossed over or under I-72 twice more before we left it behind.

More underground limestone quarries near Quincy, IL, fancier this time with labeled entrances and exits, and one hole in the bluff with railroad tracks running into it.

And where there are old underground quarries there are new underground storage facilities.

A lot of corn and wheat passes through these parts.

Looks like these two locomotives are prepared for a tug of war.

Saw quite a few houses in tall stilts right by the river. No storm surge expected here like on the Gulf Coast, but definitely rising rivers.

Are these another columbine? They were mixed in with columbines like the ones I saw the other day.

We turned west into the southwest wind. When a semi blasted by in the other direction, it blew Ed’s sunglasses off.

And then came the rain that wasn’t supposed to happen. We rode with rain gear for about 10 miles.

Then the rain and clouds fled, and the sun came out for the rest of the day.

This is the barn in the far right of the previous picture.

The Mississippi River is dammed up somewhere south of Nauvoo into a beautiful lake. The bluffs across the lake are in Iowa. It’s as close as we’ll get.

A couple miles south of Nauvoo, pronounced Naw’- voo, accent on the first syllable.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was founded in 1830. It moved from Fayette, New York to Ohio, Missouri, and then to Nauvoo, Illinois in 1839, where it prospered. After the founder Joseph Smith and his brother were murdered by a mob in 1844, the decision was made to move west to try to escape the intolerance and hostility in Illinois. Nauvoo is the place from which the Mormons set off for Utah in 1846.

A temple was built at Nauvoo before the Mormon’s left, but within a few years afterwards it was burned and damaged by a tornado before being demolished. The Mormons reacquired the property in the 20th century, and in 2002 a new temple was dedicated on the same spot.

Per a fellow sitting next to me at the bar where we found a beer in Nauvoo, the Mormons bought and demolished a Catholic girls school that stood in front of the temple, blocking its view to the river. According to him the Mormons paid the Benedictine order $20 million for the school.

View of the Mormon Temple at Nauvoo from the side.

What’s next door to the temple? A big Catholic Church. Temple in the right background.

Sculpture of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum in front of the temple.

View of the temple from “The Flats”, the area down by the river where many of the historic buildings of Nauvoo are located.

Down in The Flats I found the home of Jonathan Browning, the gunsmith whose son John M Browning was the founder of the Browning Arms Company, and is regarded as a pioneer of modern repeating, semi-automatic, and automatic firearms, for what it’s worth.

As I was riding around The Flats I saw quite a few people in period costume packing it in for the day. This would be an interesting place to visit in the future when I had more time.

I got in an extra mile that Ed didn’t by riding around The Flats, so my day was 74 miles.

Last camping night. Cool. Nice breeze. Beautiful, almost empty, campground. But the bugs are out so it’s time to retreat to the tent.

Ed’s Story

The rain had dissipated by the time we got up. John said the thunderstorms woke him up but I slept right through them.

Although I don’t normally eat cereal, the hotel had almond milk so I had some raisin bran with my potatoes this morning. And coffee of course.

We stopped at a convenience store before we crossed the Mississippi (again) to get some bananas. We then headed to Illinois for the last time.

Goodbye to Missouri for this trip, Back in Illinois for the remainder of the ride.

What are they going to do to me if I don’t?

Looking east. This is the remainder of the storm that passed through last night. Overcast and cool.

We’re out of Twain land and into Lincoln land.

The first major town we passed through was Quincy IL. There is a lot going on in this town, from grain shipments to some type of mining to underground storage facilities.

Some of the many grain silos along the river.

There are two bridges that cross the Mississippi at Quincy. It looks like one goes east and the other west. It looks like there was a lot of traffic on them so I wouldn’t want to cross either way.

We passed by Chicks on the River in Quincy. They are famous for their chicken lips. What are chicken lips you ask? Well I had to because I didn’t know. Chicken lips are “a huge piece of all white-meat chicken breast. Cut, hand battered, deep fried and dunked in one of our awesome sauces.“ And now you know!

It was cloudy and cool the first 40 miles of the ride. The wind was either behind us or a cross wind most of the ride. After 30 miles the rain started, not heavy, but enough we needed our rain jackets. It rained for almost an hour.

When we arrived at Warsaw we had to climb a very steep (13%+ grade) to get into town. It was right at a turn so I lost my momentum and ended up walking. Cross-training I call it.

After Warsaw we headed north for the last 18 miles. We were no longer on the river bed so did have some hills. As we approached Nauvoo, a climb showed up on the Wahoo showing a 7% average grade. Luckily the route looked at the surrounding hills and it wasn’t as bad as anticipated.

We arrived at the state park and climbed to the top where they had electric. We opted to move down closer to the showers. We ended up with an electric site just across the street from the showers.

Even though there is a breeze, the bugs are back. Despite using spray, they act as dive bombers to get in and out. Who knows what I’ll look like tomorrow.

After a long day we needed a beer and found The Wine Barrel. It is not only a winery but also the only bar in town. They had thy usual non-craft beer culprits. I had a Pacifico, which is probably Mexican for Budweiser. 🤣

I promised them I wouldn’t drink it anywhere else.

I headed back to camp before John for shower, dinner, and sleep. I did go by the Mormon temple in town just for the photo. There is a large fence around. I guess not just anyone can visit.

Today was overall a 73 mile day, but tomorrow is forecast as 77 miles.

We have a Warmshower host in Galesburg IL tomorrow. She works at a natural market that sells takeaway food. It looks good and may be our dinner tomorrow.

Our ride:

Currently it looks like we may some type of headwind tomorrow with a slight chance of showers. We’ll see.

Until tomorrow, happy biking!

Today's ride: 74 miles (119 km)
Total: 1,259 miles (2,026 km)

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