Day 119 - Muscatine to Monmouth - Two Far 2021 - Sooo... Far

August 5, 2021

Day 119 - Muscatine to Monmouth

Heart

Comment

We had a longer than average route today, but a better than average ride. It was a day full of good things - the roads, the views, the weather, the food and the people.

The first thing we did was ride easily through a construction zone in Muscatine down to the river. The bridge was two lane with almost no shoulder, but there was also almost no traffic and the drivers were great.

On the east side of the bridge, we entered Illinois.

As we started down the far side of the bridge, Kerry started to pedal faster - and faster. I had no idea why he was pushing so hard until he said he saw a cyclist ahead of us. He just had to catch up. We did and met Steve, who is from the Houston area and riding the Northern Tier from Anacortes, WA to Portland, ME. We had a nice talk and wished each other well before riding on.

We rode behind Steve for a short distance, then passed him and lost sight of him. Just about then, we saw another cyclist ahead of us. He stopped on the side of the road as we approached. He was also riding the Northern Tier, from Astoria, OR to Bar Harbor, ME. His name is Mike and he is from Boston.

We talked with Mike for a few minutes and here comes Steve. After seeing so few touring cyclists since we left North Dakota, it was great to have a little cycle tourer meet up on the side of the road.

After bidding good bye to Mike and Steve, we continued on our route. We turned off the Northern Tier route a couple of miles later, so we didn't see them or any other cyclists the rest of the day.

We slowed for me to take a picture of this old barn. There was a lot of noise.

Not a good picture, but on the other side of the barn, there were a number of cows on the hillside.

And, just past the cows, we saw and heard more sheep. It looked as if all this was part of one farm.

As I said, we enjoyed good roads today - well paved and very low traffic. At one point, we commented that it had been several weeks since we were in an area that could be described as "heavily wooded".

Other sights today...

And some inanimate wildlife..

Today's ride: 61 miles (98 km)
Total: 4,460 miles (7,178 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	4
Comment on this entry	Comment	1

Rose SamsonNice pictures!
Reply to this comment
3 years ago