Silver Lake, Indiana to Davenport Iowa

We're at the Econolodge in Davenport, Iowa. We crossed the Mississippi a couple of hours ago. There are a number of bridges, but google maps sent us across Rodman Avenue which runs through Rock Island Arsenal, an army base that appears to develop and collect weaponry for the Army. We saw the "no pedestrians" sign on the pre-bridgeway on the Mississippi into Rock Island, but when we saw "Army Installation" we guessed, based on experience, we wouldn't have any issues. We showed our IRR ids and cruised in relative security through base. Then we came to the big bridge into Davenport over the Mississippi. It was huge, two layers, and "bicycles had to walk." Yeah, right. We were about to walk, but we decided to just ride. The pedestrian walkway was clear, and it was mostly narrow metal grates. It was better to just get across.

Almost a week ago we left Silver Lake. We actually left on a poor day--the Friday before Memorial Day. I read somewhere on Indiana's state parks website that for that weekend, we had to make a 3-day reservation for a camp site. That's $75 for one night. Wouldn't you camp urban style? That Friday we rode 47 miles to Tippecanoe River State Park. We didn't stay at the state's campground, but we found a rather eclectic local place called Broken Arrow Campground. Everything about the campground was quite nice, except our neighbors who were up until 2:30 am. Even after I told them we were riding our bikes across the country and they woke me up. In fact, they turned the music up and told stories about harming cyclists. We won't say what they were. I bet Chicagoans. We were both pretty tired the next day, but I woke up early enough to get coffee together, and then Jim and I walked to the campgrounds cafe for an all you can eat breakfast. Delicious breakfast full of carbohydrates and sweets. I wouldn't have it any other way.

A couple miles before we arrived at Broken Arrow, google maps sent us to a dead end, and we took our chances and "went west." This was our philosophy throughout Indiana because most of the roads are numbered by the hundreds and duplicated. As long as we were headed west, we thought we'd eventually find Illinois. We found US 35, and that is where Broken Arrow Campground is located. If you are ever in Indiana and looking for a fun place to camp for a few weeks, this is the place. They have a farmer's market, Wig Wam (restaurant), live music hall, plenty of restrooms, hot and cold showers, and a camp store open until 11pm. Beer is up the street about 2 miles, and the campground lets you keep it.

The next day we did leave a little late, but we both trudged through the day with amazing endurance given the previous nights restlessness. We didn't like the water at Tippecanoe, so we left with half our reserves full. We decided about mid-day we needed to just go to a town and ask for or buy water, and we headed toward Radioville. We didn't find Radioville, but we found the town north of it that wasn't on the map, San Pierre. We stopped at the tavern for a helping of morale, and we met Bill Wild. Bill is a kind man in his 80s, and after talking to us a while, he insisted we come get water from one the three spigots on his property. Some people don't understand, but well water is indeed a treat. It tastes like water, and it is naturally cooled. Nothing better than fresh well water. We found Bill's place, and he invited us to camp on his property, but we were determined to get in more miles. We couldn't find a campground near the border of Illinois and Indiana, so we rode 12 miles north sort of out of our way to camp at the Super8 in Lowell, Indiana. This hotel is actually the only hotel located in what seems to be 25 square miles.

The next day we rode to Wilmington, Illinois. We left Lowell early enough to get a good day in, but only 5 miles from the hotel, we came across a couple of cyclists in need. They were riding from Colorado to Gary, Indiana, with barely anything on old race bikes. That's cool; I was actually envious that they had so little. After reflecting though, I was thankful for my second pair of cycling shorts (akin to underwear), my fleece jacket that keeps me warm in the evenings, the camp stove and pots that keep our food costs down, the tent that might give us shelter in the desolate areas of Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Oregon. After we patched their last tube, we were on our way. I don't know what happened to them or their names, but their uncle was there with a van when we left.

Later, we stopped in Monteno for some coffee which led to more food and a food nap. The manager of the restaurant (I lost the card in my bag, I'll post later on the left) talked to us for a while and pointed out some inaccuracies on the Rand McNalley special map we had. By the way, based on our experiences with Rand McNalley so far, I don't recommend their maps. By the end of the day, we made it to Wilmington, where we stayed for the evening.

It was during this time we both shifted and decided that we would get hotels when we felt like it. Its turning out that camping isn't all that cheap anyway. When we can we'll post our recent pictures of "urban camping."

We left Wilmington feeling a lot better than the day before, but the skies were overcast again and the clouds weren't white. It started raining almost right away, but we made it into Morris where we stopped for coffee and fended off temptation to stay in town. While looking for a coffee shop we ran into the Memorial Day parade route, and we hopped on the sidewalk and walked our bikes just in time to see the colorguard, Boyscouts, and marching band to walk down the road. We left Morris, and by the time we got to Ottawa, we'd been rained on a couple times. We decided to stay in Ottawa. The motel clerk didn't like that I was cooking with a stove outside our room, and he made me move to the center of the parking lot. We have a picture of this to post soon. Whatever. The room cost just as much as a campground.

When we left the next day the weather was nice, but more bad weather was forecast. When we got to Streatonville, the rain begain. We waited it out for a few moments at a gas station where we met Jack Genster, a local man who retired from his own business fabricating steel products. We checked the map and decided to go town to town until we go to Geneseo. Town to town is pretty much how the rain went as well. We got to Mineral, it rained, we had a beer. We got to Annawan, it sprinkled, we kept going. 14 more miles, and we finally got to Super 8 in Geneseo.

We left Geneseo this morning knowing we wanted to stop in Davenport for two days to rest. It's been 6 days, so we're happy to spend a day tomorrow doing little. There's a bowling alley a block from here.

I don't remember when it was, but at some point early in this last week, we rode on gravel roads by some cattle. During this whole trip, the cows have been very curious about us. I imagine they are pretty bored, and we're the talk of the herd. Riding on gravel roads is pretty tough. We have smooth tires, and they don't always catch on the gravel and soft dirt. Our bikes sink or stall sometimes, and we're constantly looking for patches of "hardness." This process is very difficult without looking to the right and seeing that you are the curiosity of a couple hundred cattle, and the only barrier is a small electric fence. Thank you, farmers, for those three tiny lines of electricity. You can watch the curiosity travel through the herd too. Even cows lying down stand up and start wandering toward you, then there is a crowd, some mooing, and then they're all looking at you. I'm glad they're vegetarians.

We've also been run off the road twice in Illinois. We had a car passing us on our side, and on the other side another car (the faulty one) decided to pass cars ahead. There wasn't much time, and I was sure the cars would collide or slow down right in front of us. We both just pulled over and waited it out. A day later, we were riding in the rain in Geneseo when a mini-van came close enough to push us over with their wind. Jim said he could have hit the car himself. Another note on Illinois, there are "no bikes on the sidewalks" signs everywhere.

We only update as we find a computer, but our email comes right to the phone. We can also check blog comments on our phone. Keep in touch; we love to get messages from the world. It's much better than the news.