Day 11 - ending at Grand Tower, IL - Downstate Illinois

July 17, 2025

Day 11 - ending at Grand Tower, IL

Awake at 5:51am. Worked on Day 7 report until 7:35am. Around 8:50am I was hearing thunder to the north, but I didn't get rained on this morning.

My destination today is Grand Tower, where there's a campground run by the city. Most all the riding will be on highway IL-3. But first I had plans to stop at nearby Olive Branch as I pass through, where there's a cafe and also a gas station. I left East Side Campground at 9:14am and was at the city limits of Olive Branch at 9:36am.

Missy's Kozy Korner is the cafe. They don't have wifi for customer use, but they did have an outlet for me to charge my phone. The 2x4 is the breakfast I had. It took me a while eating, since I was working on the report for Day 7 at the same time. Finally leaving at 11:02am, but just to go next door to Jones Station for Powerade and a large Cherry Coke with ice. At 11:19am I was riding.

It didn't take me long to run into 5 miles of road construction. The shoulder I had been so enjoying was being replaced/repaved. The road itself had already been done. Anyway, riding on the just tarred shoulder area was not an option. There were two or three places where they were stopping traffic, making it a one-lane road. But I got through it all OK, even though it was a little hilly.

Construction workers were cheering me on. Finally, at 11:58am, there was a side road I was able to pull onto. I found a little shade thanks to a tree, and sat down for a break. It was a long break; I didn't leave until 12:37pm. I wanted to make sure I was fully recovered from the constant effort in the heat. I also needed to put on sunscreen, which I forgot to do this morning.

Noon report: 8.1 miles.

There was quite a downhill after I left from where I had my break, and it just kept going down, much more than I thought I had pedaled uphill earlier. At 12:37pm I was past the road construction and near Thebes, where I got a glance of the Mississippi River.

Now the road was flat - really flat! And I had a tailwind. At 1:30pm, I was at the IL-146 intersection, and 11 minutes later pulling into an Illinois picnic area for another break.

This afternoon I listened to K103, KEZS-FM at 102.9 MHz, which is a Country station.

One thing I noticed while riding on this highway, at least in this area, is there's no farmer field pull-offs, and very few road intersections. That's probably due to the fact that there's a refuge to my right. At 2:40pm I did find a road into the refuge. That got me to another shady place for a break. From there I had 18 miles to go.

At 3:55pm, at Wolf Lake, I joined up with the official MRT routing, that comes in on a road from the east. There were storms now to the north, but they weren't a threat to me. They did however, at 4:18pm, create some north breeze that was so much more cooler than the tailwind I had up to then. I didn't complain one bit, it felt so nice.

I crossed the Big Muddy River at 4:34pm, and arrived in Grand Tower at 5:30pm. I rode through town and around a bluff - Devil's Backbone Ridge - to get to the campground. I don't know why, but I thought this campground had a shower house, and it doesn't! That was a big disappointment. Tent camping is $10 primitive or $20 with electricity. I can get by tonight without electricity. The self check-in station isn't very clear about where primitive camping is, so I just decided on a spot down by the riverbank next to a sycamore tree. I have a good view of Tower Rock from here.

There's lots of barges passing by, and trains on the far bank in Missouri. There was still a chance it might rain later, so I made all the arrangements for that as I set up the tent. Then I got to work on picture selection and the evening report for today. Sprinkles arrived at 8:37pm, but it didn't take long to turn into a good rain. By 9:10pm there was all sorts of nearby lightning, with very loud booms in this river valley. There was also a incredibly loud crash to the south of the tent. I thought the bike had fallen over, but it was parked on the north side of the tent. The storm calmed down by 9:35pm, and I went out to investigate. A branch had fallen out of the sycamore tree. It doesn't look too big trying to see it with my small flashlight. I'll have to investigate more in the morning.

That's all the excitement for today (hopefully). One thing I know for sure: somehow, somewhere, I am getting a shower tomorrow!

Jeff