Day 21. Serendipity and the Mississippi. Chester, IL

Two separate car trips and drivers gets Ang and I to Ste. Genevieve, MO where we catch a ferry around 10:30 am to cross the Mississippi River and start towards our destination of Carbondale, IL 70 miles away. Only we pulled up short in Chester, IL, around 3:30pm, only 32 miles into the trip. What happened?

Steve Richards brought Angela and I plus our gear to Amos's house just after 7am. Bill Amos was in the process of taking Jim Dean to the Amtrak station to head home to Olathe, KS.  Here, 3 hours later Amos stands with Angela and Bill Severson at the Ste. Genevieve ferry. After making the 65 mile drive from St. Louis to drop us off close to the Trans America Trail he was taking Severson to the airport to fly back to Washingtonn state!  We got planes, trains, automobiles and ferries!!  Thanks from all of us Bill Amos. 

All loaded up and about to board the ferry to cross the Mississippi into Illinois. Up until a few hours ago, I wasn't sure we'd be on our bikes and riding anywhere today. You see I'm still struggling with a cold I caught last Saturday, our down day in Clinton. I expect the cold that Angela caught Wednesday came from me only it's hitting her a lot harder. On top of that I think we're both a little exhausted after 21 days on the road with only 3 days off. 

I spent a good part of the very early morning hours trying to find a one way rental car to go all the way to Carbondale to spend a couple of nights to get some rest and get well again and get our bikes tweaked at one of the few bike shops in the area. Angela was really not feeling well last night and I didn't think she would be up to any riding at all today. 

There weren't any good options for alternate transport to Carbondale and Ang said she felt good enough to go so we boarded the ferry with the help of lots of friends and got on our way to Carbondale. 

I thought crossing the Mississippi on our cross country bike adventure would be a little bit transformative, or maybe even symbolic or poetic or something. It's the biggest and most storied river in North America that divides our country into East and West for crying out loud. 

Instead, as we're seen here finally remembering to wave back to Amos and Severson, it was over in a flash. We were kept busy stowing our bikes or answering friendly questions from the captain or the first mate like "Where you from?" or "Where you going?" and before we knew it we were standing alone on the Illinois side of the river with nothing around for miles trying to figure how to make this the shortest, easiest day we could.  There was just no time for transformative thoughts!!👊

Angela is still cleaning Katy Trail gravel out of her shoes here in Modoc, IL about 4 miles after the ferry. We asked the MillerCoors truck driver who was making deliveries at the bar in Modic for directions. We could have cut 10 or more miles out of our day but the bridge across the Kaskaskia River was out. Serendipity starts to reveal itself. 

It was in fact a beautiful day to ride. The air was dry, the temperatures slightly cool and the sun shining brightly. For those of you who rode your bikes up the hill to the Concorde B&B on Thursday and thought that hill was challenging, this hill has it beat!!  I was barely able to grind up in low gear but Angela, not feeling as well as she hoped, walked a bit. 

At 1:30 we stop for a picnic at the Ellis Grove Fire Dept.  We're enjoying Casey's ready made sandwiches and Gatorade that we bought this AM in Ste Geneveive.   Angela is feeling worse and we still have about 45 miles until Catbondale. At our pace, if we make it, it will be after 7. 😬

We're now entering Chester, IL, home of Popeye!!!  Whose says big things don't happen to us!  Apparently the creator of Popeye, Elzie C. Segar, drew the Popeye characters from folks she knew in Chester. They have a 900 lbs. bronze statue of Popeye in the Elzie C. Segar Memorial park, plus Olive, Pluto Sweatpea and other characters. It's almost like a lighthearted version of Harper Lee, the author of one of my favorite books "To Kill a Mockingbird", and her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. It's said Ms. Lee's famous  characters were drawn from the people she knew and grew up with there. I passed through Monroeville on my motorcycle last June on my way to Key West. I didn't stop and take it then and we didn't stop to visit the Popeye park either.  Maybe I'm just hurrying too much?

It was about 2:30 when we stopped in Chester to let Ang get a rest and something to drink. It was going to be painful for us to get to Carbondale today. If we made it, we would be very late and it would be dangerous. While we drank our iced tea I looked up hotels in Chester, two looked dodgy at best on google and a Best Western.  I called the BW and they only had one room available. I said I'd take it. As she was completing the reservation I asked her why they were so busy. She told me that Southern Illinois University in Carbondale was holding their graduation and all of the hotels there had been booked for months and hotels were now full 40 miles away!!

Had we been healthier or earlier in the day and decided to push on to Carbondale we would have found ourselves with no place to stay. Sleeping in our tent in the park on graduation weekend wasn't my idea of getting some rest and recovery. 🌳🌲 

Serendipity and the Mississippi today

The last pedal strokes in to the Chester, IL  Best Western. Angela showered and melted into bed.  After some phone calls with her family and our kids, Ryan and Michelle, she was horizontal and self medicating with Mucinex and Advil Cold and Sinus.  We ordered a pizza delivered  and she was sleeping shortly after 8. We have a plan for tomorrow but I'm learning to not plan too far ahead. We'll revisit the plan in the AM. Now, we rest.