October 15, 2022
Day 24 - Rest Day in Farmington, MO (Al's Place Cyclist Hostel)
I Could Live Here, Even In The Jail!
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I included the map above in case you wanted to zoom out and look around to know better where I am. You will note that I'm pretty much due south of St. Louis right now. My path over the next several days will circle around to the west of the St. Louis metroplex.
Tomorrow I will be heading northwest to Sullivan. It shapes up to be the most challenging day of this tour, with some 68 miles of travel that includes just under 5,000 feet of climbing with grades approaching 12%. And, of course, the wind will be from the northwest all day. The good news is that the winds are forecast to be light, with afternoon winds of only 10 mph. The wind has not been my friend on this journey, but while it has been against me, most of the time it hasn't been very strong. For a short segment yesterday I actually had a tailwind, and that's the first time since this journey began.
So now, let's bring you up to date on things. While Harvey and I are in jail, you should have it so lucky. Harvey's storage does look like a jail cell;
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He's locked in secure storage beneath the stairs. The gate is secured with 2 different hardened steel locks, and I also looped my cable lock around the frame and front wheel, so it's about as secure as outdoor storage can be. The stairway leads to my quarters, which not long ago was the living quarters for the jailer's family. Here's the jail I'm occupying for 2 days;
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The story of the jail is told below - it was still in active use in 1995.
The interior has been remodeled and is now called "Al's Place" or versions such as "Al's Place Bike Hostel" or "Al's Place Transamerica Trail Bike Hostel" or similar derivations. It's really quite cozy and nicely furnished.
There's a lot of bicycle decorations and paraphernalia around. There are 3 sleeping rooms that are all equipped with bunk beds; a total of 14 cyclists could stay here and each have a bed. In addition there are a couple of couches. The place has a washer and dryer and 2 showers, and is equipped with towels and soap and some bed linens. A suggested donation of $20/night has funded the operation and maintenance of the hostel since 2005.
If you recall, my route overlapped the Transam route for about 30 miles in Illinois before the 2 diverged. My route went south to cross the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, and the Transam went north to cross at Chester, IL. The 2 routes intersect again here at Farmington, then the Transam heads west while the Great Rivers South route goes north. All that was just a prelude so I could tell you that I stayed here in 2015 while riding the Transam route. There have been a few changes over the intervening 7 years, but the place is basically the same. Whereas bikes were once stored in the first floor where the actual jail was located, that area is now a museum and bikes are stored as you saw underneath the stairs in a gated and locked area. A few interior details have also changed, such as the overhead bikes on display.
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There is a U.S. map with pins used to denote the home cities of cyclists who have stayed at Al's, and in 2015 I put Tulsa on the map - and the pin I used is still there, pointing to the southwest quadrant of the metroplex where I live. But cyclists from all over the world have stayed here, as the map below indicates.
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I wonder if one of the Australia pins was placed there by the young couple I met in Wyoming on the Transam, or if any of the European pins were placed there by one of the Europeans I met, or if... Cycle touring can be difficult at times, and solo touring can of course be rather lonely, and it helps to realize that you are part of a worldwide community of like-minded folk.
I did laundry last night, so I'm good for another 3 days of riding now. I have enough laundry pods for the remainder of the trip, so I'm good there. Today has been spent taking care of the remaining details and logistics so that I can concentrate on the riding for the final 7-day push.
I THOUGHT I had everything worked out until last night when I tried to book the final night's lodging in Wapello, IA. The phone number of the Roy El Motel in Wapello was a disconnected number - OOPs. Although it doesn't easily show up on Google maps unless you make a specific search for it, there is another lodging option in Wapello, an older place known as the Wapello Hotel. I really wouldn't have known about it except for the ACA map including it as a lodging option. I called that number last night and no one answered and it didn't go to voice mail - so that made me think that it was also out of business. Now that presented me with a real problem, cause I had everything worked out to get to Wapello so that I would have a short ride on the final day to meet Anita in Muscatine and we could make the 9 hour return trip to Tulsa. There are no AirBnB offerings in Wapello or near enough to be helpful for me.
I will be back in Illinois for a while before I cross the Mississippi to reach Iowa. I considered a major course change; instead of crossing the Mississippi from Illinois to Burlington, IA, I could continue traveling north in Illinois and cross at Muscatine on the same bridge I crossed last year on the Northern Tier route. That route includes the town of New Boston, IL and there is an AirBnB option, and that would put me close enough to Muscatine to have a short ride on the final day. I plotted out the Google bike routing and used Google Earth to examine the roads - they are all 2-lane county and state roads, but there's nothing but a few small towns along the river and I don't think they will be busy roads. So that seemed like a feasible option. I'm just telling you this so you can get a feel for the planning and logistical considerations involved when something goes wrong - unlike traveling in a car, you can't just decide to take some other route because it may involve travel on dangerous roads for a cyclist. Or, at least in my opinion, it's not wise to choose a new route without researching it. So all this took a lot of my time last night.
Fortunately, when I tried again this morning to reach the Wapello Hotel, I got an answer after about the 8th ring. And I now have a reservation for my final night. I will be the only person at the hotel that night, the owner will not be there but she will leave the door unlocked and an envelope on the desk for me with my room key in it. It's that kind of small town operation. And the owner said that should I fall in love with the town and want to move there, that the hotel is for sale. All righty then. I'm just happy to have lodging worked out for the rest of the trip.
When I woke this morning I examined the dog bite wounds from yesterday. It doesn't look bad - I know from last year's experience what bad looks like and this ain't it.
The old jail is located right in the midst of downtown Farmington. It's a very nice downtown, BTW, and I'll just go ahead and tell you that this is one of those towns that make me say "I could live here." I walked a few blocks to the Factory Diner for breakfast and enjoyed strawberry pancakes. Compared to other tours I've done, I must say that I've ate pretty well on this one. Maybe too well, I don't think I will shed much weight by the time it's all done. The Factory Diner is located in what appears to be a former school, and there are a few other shops located there also. One of them is a used book store that also sells used records. {Note to my adult children; the term "record" was once used to denote a phonographic recording made on a vinyl disc that was played by spinning it on a turntable. A sensitive needle tracked the grooves imprinted onto the disc and picked up vibrations that were amplified into music. I just didn't want you kids to go around with your digital music nonsense and wonder what a "record" is and why anyone would care, so now you know.}
I didn't venture inside the used book store, because I would inevitably want to buy something and I don't need more stuff to carry on my bicycle. But one day, maybe I'll be back.
Okay, I need to wrap this up so I can do a wee bit of maintenance on Harvey and get prepped for tomorrow. While tomorrow will be the single hardest physically challenging day of the trip, the next 4 days are all going to be demanding as I enjoy the Ozarks and their steep hills, and this will be the hardest section of this journey. After that the final 3 days will be much less challenging, but I may be a bit tired by that time. So I have one more run to make, a 7-day run, and this one will be fun. The weather has gotten cooler and I expect to have some morning starts in the mid-high 30's; I haven't used the leg warmers so far. but that may change. The wind will not be my friend either, but at least it won't be very vicious. Why should it be my friend this last week since it has been my enemy the entire trip? I'm really not complaining much, because the wind could certainly have been much worse.
A little music appropriate for my jailhouse stay. If you ever have a jailhouse stay, I hope it's as nice as mine. Later my friends...
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