July 27, 2025
Day 21 - ending near Oquawka, IL
Woke up at 4:25am. There's heat lightning to the south. Radar shows it's raining in Quincy. I packed up and left at 6:55am. The only place in Nauvoo for breakfast on a Sunday morning is Casey's, apparently. I was there at 7:05am. I ate outside at the corner of the store. There was a nice cooling breeze blowing on me there.
Today's destination is Delabar State Park just north of Oquawka. The MRT routes on county roads to get to Dallas City. I'm familiar with this area. My dad's uncle, aunt, and cousin lived on a farm just southwest of Niota, the next town up from Nauvoo. We were always going there for visits when I was growing up. I wanted to ride on some of those roads again. So until I got to Dallas City I was not following the MRT. And at the last minute I decided not to follow exactly my at-home plan either, which was to go down to the river and then northeast.
I left Casey's at 7:45am heading east on IL-96 until I got to CR-800E, where I turned north. I went east some, then eventually got on CR-830E going north. This put me in the area I wanted to be. The road is on a bluff, but would eventually get me down to the river just southwest of Niota.
I did arrive in Niota at 9:30am, after taking bluff pictures and river pictures. When I was in town I passed by a fellow selling knives. He'd been a truck driver and would buy knives he liked at places he passed through. I showed him my pocket knife, which is embarrassingly dull. This was a fun conversation break. Before I left, Sammy let me take his picture. He wants me to make sure everyone knows he's single ;-)
My way to Dallas City from here was to ride on IL-9/IL-96. I believe traffic was a lot less than usual, since the bridge from Fort Madison, Iowa is closed to cars at the moment. Anyway, it was flat enjoyable riding. I did pass a sign pointing to Stony Hill Nature Preserve. It didn't seem like much, but I was inspired reading the stories on the information board about the woman who took care of the place until she died.
I arrived in Dallas City at 10:55am to stopped traffic at the end of a parade. I'd been seeing signs about "Dallas City Celebration - Last weekend in July". My problem was I was thinking this Sunday was not part of the last weekend in July, but it is. Since the parade was over, traffic was moving again, and parents were picking up candy missed by the kids. On farther into town I saw a place across the highway selling snow cones. I could go for one of those, so stopped and walked across. The decision I had to make was what flavor. I went with raspberry. Walking back across the street, I sat down on the curb in the shade of a building. What a treat this was. I also decided while I was crunching on ice to give my father-in-law a call. I had some background noise - traffic and trains going by. But it was nothing compared to the background noise where my father-in-law was - at church during coffee fellowship! He moved away from all the conversations so we could talk. It was great to hear how he and everyone is doing.
Eventually I got back to the bike to discover that someone had put 10 parade-size bags of Motts fruit gummies on my front basket! After stashing those, I rode up a block and turned left. Now I was officially back on the MRT. I was out of town when the noon alarm went off. I rode half a minute further to get to a rest area to write the number down: 18.4 miles.
I was in Lomax at 12:36pm. The MRT does a lot of back and forth on country roads between Lomax and Gladstone. All this is because (I believe) the folks laying out the route wanted to minimize the amount of time riding on no-shoulder very-busy US-34. I'm all for that, having ridden on US-34 before. There was just a half a mile on that highway for me today.
In Gladstone I got on IL-164 to get the Oquawka. I stopped to look at the Henderson County Covered Bridge at 3:29pm. It wasn't too much longer and I was in Oquawka. I had several places marked on my GPS where I might eat. The Arrow Cafe was open, so I stopped there. I'm so glad I did because their special today was meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and carrots. Lots of it and very good! They let me charge my phone, and said I could stay as long as I liked. So I worked on sorting pictures, but was falling asleep. As I left I asked if they have wifi for customer use. They do! I'm thinking I'll come back here tomorrow morning to see about getting some pictures uploaded - and have breakfast, of course.
I didn't leave the cafe till 5:36pm. I was hearing thunder now, and checked the radar. Afternoon storms had popped up north and south of here. I was thinking I lucked out this time. I rode a few blocks to see the Henderson County Courthouse, then a few blocks farther to see the site for elephant Norma Jean. This elephant was in town with a circus. Lightning struck and killed her here in 1972. With special permission, she was buried here at the site where she died.
With my sightseeing done for the day, I headed on to the state park, which is just north of town. I was still hearing thunder, but that, of course, was for storms nearby, not here. No one's here at this campground, but there may be another campground I don't know about. I found an acceptable site with a working electrical outlet (site #14). My tent ground cloth, raincoat, and rain boots had all been stored away wet. I decided to spread everything out to see if I could get them dry before setting up. I worked on picture selection as I waited. It wasn't too much longer and it started sprinkling! There's hardly any cell signal here, but I was able to pull up radar, which showed serious rain was going to be here shortly. I didn't have time to set up the tent before the rain. There's a picnic pavilion across the road, so at least I could get the bike over there. I covered the tent with the ground cloth upside down, then got back to the pavilion just as the heavy rain started.
After spending some time at the pavilion, and seeing how nice it would be to set up underneath it, I decided to camp here when this rain is over. The rain stopped and I went over to get the tent. I thought I was holding it high enough off the ground (it was still all unrolled), but I wasn't. I was so frustrated with myself. Sand and wet dirt were all over, mostly on the ventilation screens. When I got the tent up and tried to brush the sand off, it all fell through the mesh into the tent. Great, now I have wet sand all over inside! I cleaned things up the best I can for now. I guess it's all part of the adventure when you're not thinking your best.
Jeff
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Today's ride: 49 miles (79 km)
Total: 864 miles (1,390 km)
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