Day 44 - Rock Island to Wyanet - C2C - from Westport, Washington to Sandy Hook, New Jersey

July 16, 2016

Day 44 - Rock Island to Wyanet

I did NOT get up at the crack of dawn. Noooo.
I was a slug in a bug in a rug.
And I felt terribly guilty.

One of the things about bicycle touring is your degree of exposure.
Increasingly, there are fewer and fewer public spaces -
Public spaces that do not require purchase of a product or service.
Being “out there” 24/7 takes its toll on the psyche.
Not surprisingly, I did not leave the hotel room -
From moment I entered in the evening until I left at 10:30 the next morning.
It felt good.

Rock Island's Downtown Is Chic and Mostly White
(Davenport's Downtown Is Crumbling and African American)

When I finally did get a move on, I took the River Trail.
The Quad Cities have miles and miles of bike trails along the Mississippi.
Sometimes it's industrial, sometimes it's park-like - but quite pleasant.

It was a bright blue day with a ride along the Mississippi River.
One nice thing about bike trails is that you are among fellow travelers.
Small waves and hellos.

After not too many miles, I stopped for lunch at a riverside restaurant.
They were playing Fleetwood Mac and Joni Mitchell.
Sunshine, light breeze - all of a sudden it was 1977 all over again.
Gee, I sure hadn’t gotten very far, had I?

Riding through East Moline, I saw the results of deindustrialization.
Case, John Deere, and International Harvester used to be big manufacturers here.
Big ag machinery - made in America. No longer.
You can see it. You can feel it.

One of the Many Abandoned Factories in East Moline

A Nice Working-Class Neighborhood in East Moline

I decided to take parts of the Hennepin Canal Trail and was pleasantly surprised.
Most - but not all - of the way is has a hard surface like macadam.
And it has the quiet revery that is a trademark of rural trails.

But I alternated between trail and road.
Found the little town of Genesseo to be charming and doing well.

The farm roads in Illinois are the bomb - paved with almost no cars.
But, eventually, ya gotta get on the highway to make miles.
So after a leisurely day - I pushed on.

And made a campsite along the Hennepin Canal right at sundown.

Today's ride: 58 miles (93 km)
Total: 2,365 miles (3,806 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0