Oct 5 Day 20

Oct 5 Day 20

We left Muscatine this morning after making a donation to the local bike shop, new gear cables and a mirror for Dave. I bought a new straighten out back wheel, a complete set of brake pads and new coat with vents so I can wear it longer on cool mornings. This means I had to decide on about my green shell. It had a good life on the AT but leaked water though out so it remained behind to warm a someone at a donation center down the road (RIP green coat). May that coat go to someone that needs it to keep warm but not dry. Dave is happy the green shell is gone, as he claims I looked shabby, and would not talk to me in public places until I took it off.

Greg at Haper cycling and fitness highly recommended we cross back to IL given his extensive knowledge of the area we took his advice. Before we left the bike shop Greg kindly showed us his fathers collection of Big Wheel bikes or antiques bikes and they were cools. Anyone in the area should stop in at the Harper's bike shop and see them, nice people that know what they do and history of the town.

On the way out of town we meet Cork who rode with us for about a mile and talked about the town history. He clearly was known as lots of people said Hey to him. Turns out the old bridge was a multi-span bridge. Twice a span fell once in 1890 with a large load of lumber and once when two tomato trucks crossed at the same time. He pointed out a poem about the old bridge and the statue showing the clamming industry in the area. Turns out this area was the source for most of the mother of pearl buttons until 1950 when they changed to plastic.

At lunch we stopped and ate the apples given to us yesterday by Mr. Nelson and here is a picture of restored prairie

The ride to Keithsburg and the Shady Pine Campground was pretty uneventful today covering 40 miles total. Lots of farm trucks hauling corn and soy beans to the local elevators. Many combines in the fields as the day was perfect for bringing in the corn and beans. It even warmed up enough that David took his coat off for a couple hours in the afternoon. I had my coat off at 11:30 and may put it back on in an a hour or two around 6PM.

This is nice campground although a little strange, as there is no one else camping here. They have maybe 60 campsites and we are alone. One other strange thing is the number of cars that just drive through the camp area we have already had 3 cars and 1 motorcycle. Maybe they are all plotting to steal my nice new blue coat.

Thankful for Today

Today the people in Muscatine were all friendly to us. Hotel clerk provided clear direction and was helpful with breakfast selection. Greg at the Haper's Cycling sold us stuff we needed and visited with us providing advise and showing us some of his collection. Cork told the history, showed us some sites we would have missed and was overall Friendly. So today I have decided to thankful for the friendlyness of people in general and in partcular the friendly people of Muscatine.

Love and Kisses to all and to all a goodnight.

Allan and David

Oct 4 Day 19

We rode a total of 52 miles today to end in Muscatine IA.  As we are out of breakfasts, dinners and gas to cook we decided to stop in an Econo Lodge.  Given how cold it is sleeping out, this may have influenced the decision.

Both Dave and I were slow leaving our warm sleeping bags this morning and therefore after cooking breakfast it was after 9:30 before we started out. Both of us wore coats during the early part of the ride but I took my coat off before lunch and Dave (the Wimp) wore his coat all day, not even opening his vents all day. 

The start of the day we had paths along the river that was very flat and well marked.  This seem to lift my spirit.  Then we found the river had flooded some  of the trail.  It looks like we could bike though so I lead the way, no problems were encountered except some splashing of water.  Dave's bike is lower and slower and his feet were completely underwater.  He was complaining the rest of the day about having cold wet feet.  This also improved my mood during the rest of the morning. 

Here is a building with smoke stack top like the old time steamboats had.

We stopped at Rock Island for lunch, right were the paths ended.  This put back on the regular roads, and found some more hills.  Dave claims my mood swing from to good to horrible, grumpy and ticked off, was instant.  I am pretty sure it took at least 20 mirco-seconds after seeing the first hill.  (In all honesty the ride was flat and smooth really quick)

Yesterday we met a young women at lunch that was riding to Texas.  We provided some advise on the where the trail was and she was gone in no time.  But before starting out she reached down grabbed her toes  and lefted the foot over head from the back.  I knew right then that there was no chance that I could ride as fast she was going.  Dave tried the same streach this morning and almost had to go hospital for pulled muscles. 

Here is a fireman statue found in Illinois City IL.  Thanks for remembering how much these guys give us.

Thankful for Today
Kindness is a human trait that is undervalued in world.  Yesterday while we gather kindleing wood for the fire, one of the RV campers came over and gave us a newspaper to light the fire with.  Then we were cooking dinner and the same guy arrived and gave us a two pieces of apple pie and chocolate.  This might be reason for my good mood in the morning, but for sure it was part of the reason for being warm at night.  So thanks Mr. and Mrs. Nelson for all your kindness and hope we brought some sunshine into your life.

Love and Kisses to all and to all good night
Allan and David

Oct 3 Day 18
With all the frost warning last night David and I were pleased to be in a heated room for the night in the town of Thompson. Right next to the hotel was a lounge that had OK beer and good steak. We left before the music started thus we avoided the women that were lining up to ask us to dance. As I could just barely walk, I was happy to swing my feet up onto the bed and call it a day.

This morning was really cold and we slept in till the grand late hour of 6:35. I was pleased to have a couple cups of coffees in the room before breakfast and then plenty more at the restaurant. Even with all the luxury we had this morning we started out before 8.

Dave broke it when his bike fell over at a visitor center today.  David's new mirror worked well although he complains it convex and therefore not as good as his original if we ever see a bike store I am sure he will buy a new one, but the repaired one only cost a total of $5 and that included the vinyl tape he used to hold it to the old mounting.

Above is a windmill just off the river south of Thompson

The ride out of town started off on a bike path and was flat. David has suggested my mood was improved by the word level and extra coffee muttered in the restaurant whenever my cup was low. Yesterday the stop for breakfast did not have coffee and maybe this was the reason for my, “less than cheerful mood”, Today Dave has suggested I was “Happy Happy” which most likely can be attributed to the extra caffeine in my system.

Flat trail that made my mood improve according to Dave.

One strange thing yesterday discussed was the snake on the road. As I approached it got off the road and out the way quickly, as David passed it turned and stuck towards him. Have never seen this before so it can be stated as weird. Today we had two squirrel incidences. A squirrel ran from left to right across the road, when it reached the ditch it jumped at least 8 feet across and I swear was close to flying or at least gliding in the air. Then a squirrel running in the same direction passed just to the front of my bike and between Dave's front and rear wheels, under his feet. I claimed it was a suicide attempt but Dave feels the squirrel just timed it that way.

As we were on bike paths all day there was only one idiot sighting and he also on a bike. As we climbing out of the town of Port Byron on a large street. Dave said there is bike behind just as I started to move towards Dave he zipped pass between us, this upset me. David suggested that I catch him and explain to him proper biker edict. As I had a chocolate cake, after the roasted chicken for lunch I was not moving too fast the only I could have caught up to the jerk was if he had hit a tree down the trail.

Thankful for Today
I really really liked the flat bike paths today, from Thompson all the way to Hampton we were on low volume traffic roads and bike paths. The whole way the river was just beside and the trains were across the river so their horns sounded muted rather than harsh and sudden. So today I thankful for the comfortable ride beside the river on a quite bike trails with the birds singing and light traffic.
Love and Kisses to all and to all a good night.
Allan and David.

Oct 2 Day 18

Another tough riding day too many hills and lots of lousy roads.  The road out of Dubuque had no shoulder and was rough in many places, once even saw grass growing on the road.  It being Saturday all the bad drivers were out, here are a couple of examples of the stupidity we saw today.

Case 1
In this case the stupidity starts while I am climbing a hill.  Being the excellent example of manhood I am and the hill being steep I am making great headway at 3.5 mile per hour going up.  There is a passing center lane and it is open and no one is coming down in the opposing lane.  This truck passes on my left in the right lane leaving only 5 inches between my handle bars and his side.

Case 2
We are doing 15 miles per hour on a flat road and red SUV passes up in the far left lane.  The driver slows down and the oncoming traffic beeps at the SUV she pulls backs into right lane and immediately turns rights.  So the pass into on coming traffic saved all of 3 seconds in travel time.

Case 3
This is the prize winner for the day.  David and I are on a huge downhill and I am going like a bat out of hell, making more than 25 MPH.  The wind is blowing across the road and I am trying my best to stay on the road.  This red mini van passes us.  So far so good just a car way down the way coming up the hill and the minivan is back in front of me in  a second less than heartbeat the left term signal comes on and the van comes to a complete stop.  Now at 25 miles per hour it takes a long time to stop, the thought in my mind is, &^%$ drive I will at least leave a big a scrape on the side before I land in the ditch.  However with some luck I just missed the van and the ditch with inches on both sides.  The mini van save maybe half a second in total travel time, this is driver I would like to speak to in a private meeting with boxing gloves.

Exciting stuff today late in the day we are sailing along the road, when the front wheel fell into a crack running parallel with the direction of travel.  The front wheel throw me out into the middle of the road.  The bike skidded twice and I caught it. I was really lucky not to have gone down David said I looked like a trick rider and I should not try to do that again.  My heart rate did not drop until I had some whiskey in the hotel about an hour later.

In addition to all of the above we crossed the river on one those open grate bridges with very low bumper on the side.  Being afraid of heights and being able to see though the bridge in combination with the very low guard rails to keep me from falling into the river I was happy to get over bridge and back onto solid land.  I am wimp despite what other people think.

We had lunch at Grandpa parlour in Bellevue IA the same spot in IA Dianne I and I stopped for ice cream before.  Here is a picture of the river from the lunch stop.

In the background is Lock 12

Notice that water over the dam is level on both sides even with a 12 foot drop in the lock.  The river is still over the banks.  We saw a home with the water up half the height of of the slideing glass door along the way today and many home that we could estimate how height the water was around it.  

Thankful for Today

I am most thankful for the fact I did not fall when the wheel caught the crack this afternoon.  Also I am thankful that none of the dumb driver hit me during the ride, even with the close the calls I am still riding and there is not damage to the bike, David and his coat or me.

Love and Kisses to all and to all a good night.

Allan and David

PS

At a  quick stop store today the cashier said David nice warm red bicycling jacket was "styling" while my old green shell was "not cool".  It took all afternoon before the shell feelings were repaired and it started to keep me warm again.

Oct 1 Day 17

This was a tough day for me we covered 48 miles to Dubuque IA we had a ton of hills to climb.  I think I walked up 4 times once had to serpentine the bike up while walking up the hill.  It is not uncommon for me to serpentine up the hill riding but to do so while walking means it was a really steep hill.  I have decided that any hill is bad hill.  I have I decided that the exchange the rate between the Wahoo and "OH *&^% another hill" is 1 to 100; In other words it one hill is worth 100 Wahoos, this really means I really hate hills.

Here is a picture looking up a hill at a barn on top of the hill.  I was walking at this point and David had to take the picture.

The big news in the  town of Cassville was the home coming parade and the football game tonight, during breakfast we heard at 4 people talking about this event.  I would have stayed and watched tonight I had known how bad the hills were.

Here a picture of a Grotto in the Dickyville just before we lost the route.  We stopped just past here for a lunch and it was great.


Later in the day while leaving the town we lost faith in the direction as they had direction for us to enter a divided highway then cross both sides of the road.  We than proceeded to ride and had the same road 3 more times and that made Dave mad as he did not enjoy the crossing each time.



Later in the day a dump truck going north on a narrow road kicked up a stone that hit me in the left ankle.  It hurt a little at the time but I think it rolled my pantyhose and that later in the day cause a blister on the ankle. Tomorrow I will have to put a bandage on the blister to keep it from getting worse.



By the end of the day David described my mood as, "as perky as the motel became closer" earlier in the day he said I was, "tried and silently pissed off".



Thankful for the day
I am very grateful find that when I am too tried to continue climbing the hill and need a rest to discover that someone has placed the exact location I need to rest at such a location to have a great view, with flowers and hills in the distance.  So I have to thank to the powers that be for kind the consideration in providing such great spots to rest up at.






Love and Kisses to all and goodnight to all.



Allanand David



PS thanks Niki for the direction and thanks Donna for David and his humor to keep me going and thanks Dianne for giving the me the time to do this.

Sept 29 & 30

Sept. 29 i
n a Motel in Prairie Du Chien Dave and I had a large breakfast buffet that included, sausage and biscuits, waffles with strawberries and whipped cream and omelet made to order with some fresh fruit and sweets rolls and that is just what I. As it was part of the room fee I did not feel guilty or that I took advantage of them as I thought the room was over priced.
Dave and I then biked up to the Effigy mounds on the MN side of the river. This is a national heritage site to preserve the burial mounds for ancient Indians of the area. Some are simple build as a line or a cone but some are more complex and resemble bears, herons and other animals. It was interesting to walk in the woods and see the land and river far below. Those people must have worked like dogs to get the bodies way up here for burial. They had a good visitors center and liked seeing the tools and other objects they recovered in the area. It still amazes me that the primitives had some copper.

Next we crossed back over the river and saw Villa De Louis. This was huge home build in 1878 by the son of fur trader. The family had made so much money the son decided to hire a manager to handle the business and just “enjoyed life” with a 6 hole private golf course, an archery range, private park, private race course and a billiard hall. Unfortunately the family lost all their money in the depression and the kids had to work for a living, life must be tough for some. Growing up with personal servants and companions then having to find a job and work must have been an experience for the youngsters. Easy come and easy go.

View from camp site that night

We finally left town at a 4:00 and moved down the road to a Wysualying (spelling is wrong) state park and had this fine view of the river valley below from our campsite. Ate our a pasta dinner and joked around with the neighbors who could not believe we had all the stuff we did on the bikes. By the time we hit the sleeping bags the wind was howling and it did so all night.

Please note how high we are over the river this although interesting, is a terrific aggravation to me as I had to get the bike up here with all my gear. If I do not sound happy about this it is the impression I want to leave people with. David described my mood as, “Allan you were in a silently suffering snite”. This is true as I had to get off the bike and walk up two hill to reach the end of the day. For the day we covered a total of 25 miles over the day although we moved only 10 miles down the river.

 Allan cooking breakfast the morning of the 30th

c

This morning it was cold when we left the tent and walked to the showers. On the way back from the showers one of the rangers stopped me and pointed out that we had short chained them on the camping fee. As David and I had spent several minute arguing about what the fee was, I pleased that at least we both were wrong.

The ride out of the park was triple WAHOO (30+ MPH) there were too many wahoo to counts today, but with all good things comes some bad, in this case too many to count, “$%#& hills”. Once or maybe twice I had to get off the bike and push it up hill.

We reached a site of Stonefield Farm which is a reconstructed 1900 village and farm museum. It in concluded a tour of Dewey Nelson home in the park. Dewey was the first Governor of WI. It was great example of the 1900 homes of the rich, when compared to the local 1900 farm home that we also toured the difference was stark.

When then finished the day with a short ride to Cassville WI where we found a good cheap hotel, for night and we are getting ready to go to the bowling alley for dinner. Not sure how this will turn out as I have never had a dinner at a bowling alley.

Gratefully for Today.
The mounds and the Agricultural museum both are example or remembering our past. They are even more than that they are honoring our past. Even though we do not how to properly honor the dead at the mounds we currently doing our best to respect those hidden there. At the agricultural museum the tools and life the people lived are remembered such that our kids can see and understand our past. So for helping us to remember history and life thanks to all people that support that work.
Love and kisses to all and to all a goodnight.
Allan and Dave.

Sept 28 day 15

It was a fast day today we covered 57 miles in just over 5 hours and had an average of over 11 miles per hour.  Given that I many WAHOO moments so there were also a lot of "Oh GOD another Hill" shouts out too.
The ride was along state Hyway 35 most of the way.  This put the WI limestone bluffs on our left and Mississippi River lapping the road on the right. 
Here is a picture of the lock and Dam 8.

Note how the dam in the center of the picture looks pretty much level even though there is suppose to be a 11 foot drop.  We watched a whole tree pass though the dam. 
Just here David saw his first barge up close.  Here is a picture of it.

Notice the pile of coal, I would assume the coal is going to one of the power plants up the river. 
Here is a bonus picture looking north at the upper Mississippi refuge.

Wildlife is picking up considerably, yesterday we raced a deer down the road as the area next to the road was flooded.  Today we saw a flock of pelicans, Canada Geese and plenty of ducks.  But what was really cool was the bald eagle landing right next to the road.  David tried to take a picture of it but it took off before and the picture looked like clouds with little black points.

Talking about the photography Dave does has a problem.  We currently have two pictures of his feet, two pictures of his packs, three pictures of the ground and several of his fingers.

One truck passed within 1.5 feet of me and made me a little nervous but Dave said I was OK.  The shoulder on the road was great but at times a little rough and narrow.  On the narrow shoulders when a truck passes you the suction from behind the truck speeds the bike up 1-1.5 miles per hours.

Thankful for Today
Today with the river next us all day and lots of history plagues next to the road it was beautiful ride.  The Upper Mississippi River Wildlife Refuge created in 1934 was easy to appreciate.  I am therefore grateful for the foresight of the people who passed the laws needed to protect this resource.
Love and kisses to all.
Allan

PS Dianne I still appreciate you too!