Day 12 - ending at Chester, IL - Downstate Illinois

July 18, 2025

Day 12 - ending at Chester, IL

I woke up initially at 5:22am, but decided to sleep some more, and that was until 6:29am. It was foggy out, and hot, and muggy. Trying to see the barges passing by made me wonder how they see in such fog - GPS or radar I'm guessing.

I'm getting so far behind with journal postings that I need to take a day off. I had planned to be in Chester this evening, staying at the free cycle hostel that the Eagles Club runs. But this morning I decided I really need a motel with air conditioning, so spent what seemed like an unnecessarily long time making a reservation with the Baymont Inn in Chester. And it's for two nights.

I left Grand Tower Campground at 9:00am. The MRT routes through this campground, and I headed north far enough to see the natural gas pipeline "bridge" over the Mississippi River. Then I had to turn back toward town, since the Fast Stop gas station is the only place nearby for food. I tried a combination of items for breakfast this morning, since they didn't have any hot food, or even coffee. Stocked with two Powerades, I was on my way back north at 10:15am.

The routing eventually had me back on IL-3, until I got to Gorham. Then it was paved back roads. I did notice there's a bar open in Neunert, where I probably could have had lunch. It wasn't too much later that I wrote down the noon mileage at 16.5 miles.

At 12:34pm I was up on a levee - on Levee Road. The countryside views were better from up there. Also I could see pump houses and control valves to keep the levee-protected area from flooding, which is probably only interesting to me.

At 1:30pm I was back on IL-3, then soon in Randolph County. There's no shoulder on this section of IL-3. But that didn't matter, since I would be heading into the bluffs to get to Chester. I did pass by Rockwood Trading Post, a historical site before my turn off. My turn was at Rockwood at 2:02pm, after taking a break at their city park. I devised this route idea at home before I left, knowing how high Chester is from the river, and the steep downhill I rode on when I was previously there. That downhill would be an uphill for me today, and I was thinking I'd rather do that on a country road than in Chester. Before I arrived in Chester, I realized that I should have not come up with this idea. It was like doing the Chester hill four or five times. By the way, this route idea was mine, and is not part of the MRT.

Anyway, my route included Randolph County Road 5, View Valley Road, and County Farm Road. It was pretty. It also had me walking - a lot! But I had another problem. Rain was on the way. I haven't yet been able to out-bicycle rain, and I certainly can't out-walk it. I covered the front basket gear, then called that good enough. I was already soaked with sweat, and having my raincoat on doesn't help with that.

I was less than a mile from Chester now, and was able to pause under the branches of a tree to check on the phone where the motel was. Fortunately it was a right turn on IL-150 and I'd be there. Even the last little bit of County Farm Road was uphill. I rode that, with more exertion than I normally put out.

I arrived under the Baymont entrance canopy at 4:10pm. It took me 15 minutes to recover before I even walked in. There was no ground floor room for me like I was promised this morning. Oh well, I can empty the bike. Surprising to me it only took two trips up stairs for the cargo, and one for the bike, of course.

During the task of unloading is when I noticed that my safety vest is gone. There were, of course, downhills for me today to match the uphills. On one hill I was coasted down at 37 mph. No doubt that's when the vest blew off the back of the bike.

Just before I carried the bike up the stairs, I decided to have a can of vending machine root beer. That was $2. But it was so good!

Of course, my number one priority was getting a shower, then getting clothes washed - they do have machines here.

I spent too much time sorting pictures for Day 7 after my shower, and waiting on the laundry, having forgotten that I needed to send out today's "evening report". If those reports get much later, I'll have to re-title them "early morning report".

The air conditioner in this room is barely working, but I'm clean now and have clean clothes and a clean sleeping bag, so all is well. I'm going to call it a day.

Jeff

The crash I heard last night during the storm.

I was going to take a break here in the shade of this tree, but the bees weren't happy about that.

Today's ride: 40 miles (64 km)
Total: 537 miles (864 km)

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George (Buddy) HallI recognized the coal pile along the levy - and I shuddered remembering highway 3 was busy with lots of coal trucks and no shoulder - you rode a bit of the Transam route today! I'm recalling parts of my Transam ride in 2015 from your journal - thanks for the memories.
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