Riding The Right Side Of The River

We got going again on Thursday. We got away from our friend Bob Loch's house a bit late, had breakfast and then drove for over an hour to get back to Bellevue, IA around 11 AM.
We had about 25 miles to go down the Mississippi until we got to a town that had a bridge across the river, Sabula IA. It is actually an island in the Mississippi and the road to the bridge was almost a swamp that was teeming with beautiful birds like blue heron and snowy egrets. It was very enjoyable.
OK, here is the picture that people have requested. Joe on a bike.
Matt recorded the auspicious moment when I crossed the big river. I am now on the right side of the country. We have been on the left side for too long. The bridge surface was treacherous. A grid design that is very slippery for bikers, so I didn't relax and enjoy the moment. In fact, I didn't enjoy the next few hours. The ride in the first miles of Illinois was really tough. The road was old concrete that was broken and sometimes patched, poorly at best. There was no shoulder, heavy truck traffic. Need I say more? Oh yeah, the drivers were the most obnoxious of any I faced so far. Several couldn't pass me as I was going up a hill, so they started honking. I got some attitude going, mostly obscene and they backed off. I'm not Lance Armstrong, so I don't move as fast as he does, but I am also a lot bigger that he is, so they think twice before trying to bully me around. Well, some of them think twice. I had a truck blow by me so close, he actually put me into the gravel and took me off the bike. Not a fun experience.
However, that day was followed by a positively glorious day yesterday. It was cool. I don't know if it reached 80 degrees all day. It was sunny and the road surface was smooth with plenty of shoulder most of the time. I did 80 miles and biked a good chunk of Illinois. I think there is only about 50 more miles to go before Indiana. I will stop there today, because Matt wants to bike the entire state and he and Josh are going golfing today. They have to get their round of golf in before we leave Illinois.
I have been looking at the map and now figure we will be in Ohio much sooner than we thought. The states east of the Mississippi are much narrower than the west. Illinois in 2.5 days and Indiana in two. We will be in Ohio before the end of the week. The miles are going just as fast (or slow). It's just that the distances are shorter. As Matt once commented "Those states in the West are Huge!!"
After today's ride, we'll get going to Milwaukee for a baseball game. We are just south of Chicago and it is only about 2 hours north of there. It should be an easy drive. We'll take our time coming back on Monday and stop and see some friends on Monday afternoon.

Here is a picture of the boys and I in Kansas City. I finally downloaded the pictures, so this is catch up. I have taken a similar picture of the boys in all the ballparks, but few of all of us. Thanks to the fan who volunteered to take the picture. We always get a lot of comments about wearing the Boston gear, even though Boston isn't playing at the time. We wear our colors proudly!!
Well, it is 8 AM and time to get ready to get riding again today. We'll write more probably from Milwaukee.
Till then.