General Feelings. Overall, I did enjoy this tour, but parts of it were not much fun at all.  Some aspects of it almost negated the value of the entire tour. I would not want my family or friends to ride this route in the same manner and under the same conditions that I did - but I think I can offer some suggestions that will make it a better experience, and I will do so in the next section of this epilogue. 

I've now ridden 4 of the ACA routes, including 2 of their coast-to-coast routes.  I've traveled some 11,700 miles while riding the Transamerica, Western Express, Northern Tier, and this route (the Great Rivers South).  Of those 4 routes, I would have to rank this one as the worst experience.  If I were giving it a grade, I'd probably give it a 70.  A 70 is a low "C," not a failure,  but not in the same league as the other ACA routes I have ridden that would get high "B's" or low "A's."  This is highly subjective, of course, and others may rate this route differently.  But therein lies part of the problem; there just don't seem to be many others that have ridden this route as compared to other ACA routes, so it's hard to get good information from other journals like you can with other ACA routes.  Many others that have ridden this route have skipped parts of it, or modified the route significantly, making it hard to get an advance feel for this ACA route.  I was true to the ACA route for almost the entire journey, except for when it was necessary to veer off for lodging.

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Some Particulars. You can't avoid the industrial landscape of Louisiana, but it helps to know where to stop and where you should just ride on through.  Baton Rouge has it's own particular problems, but again I think that good planning can alleviate having to deal with them.  There's a long stretch in north LA and south MS you have to ride early in the tour, but there's a way to do it successfully.  There are 2 problem areas on the Natchez Trace.  They can be so bad that it almost makes the mostly serene ride on the Trace not worth it. I'm not sure you can totally circumvent the problem sections, but I'll offer suggestions to do so in the following section.  Mississippi highways are awful for cyclists and should be avoided - good planning is needed to map out the best routes to get off the Natchez Trace each day for lodging and then rejoin it the next morning. Fortunately, there's a resource that helps tremendously with that planning.  There's a bit of narrow highway shoulder in Tennessee - it helps to know that's coming and the limits of it. Kentucky was great except for part of the Land Between the Lakes; again, I have suggestions that may improve that experience.  Most of Missouri is great for cycling, but half of one day is pretty awful - I have some thoughts that may help with that.  The second foray into Illinois (assuming a south to north route) has a bit of problematic highway, and I'll offer some thoughts on dealing with it as well.  I have written this paragraph as a placeholder for my thoughts and to serve as an outline for suggestions I'm going to make - I also have to consult my handwritten notes and the ACA maps before I develop some recommendations for others - I will compile it all into the next section, hopefully within the next few days.

Discussion & Analysis Of The Statistics.  For whatever reason that escapes me at the moment, I tried to record various statistics along the way.  Some may be helpful to others while some are likely just worthless trivia.  

     Roadkill.  I tabulated the roadkill I saw along the way.  These numbers are most certainly minimalistic as there are many reasons I would not have noticed all the roadkill.  First and foremost, it's necessary to give proper attention to your cycling and the traffic environment so that you yourself don't end up being amongst the roadkill.   I may not have noticed roadkill on the opposite side of the road.  I may not have noticed roadkill that had been thrown aside in the adjacent ditch or median.  Some larger roadkill (such as deer) are removed from the roadway by the highway maintenance crews.    Some of the small roadkill (such as snakes) literally gets smashed and obliterated to the point of being unrecognizable.  Some of the roadkill noted could possibly be assigned to more than one category; for instance, I have a "bird" category and separate categories for birds I recognized such as hawks.  I made notes in a small notebook I carried in my handlebar bag, and occasionally also made notes on my phone.  I would cycle for an hour or so and then when I stopped for a break I would record the roadkill I had seen.  I could easily have forgotten to record some of the roadkill I saw. I think it's not unreasonable to assume that my numbers could be off by a factor of 2 - 3 times.  So then, for whatever good it may do for some biology researcher or such, here are the numbers of roadkill I noted: 

Bird (3), Hawk (3), Owl (1), Turkey Vulture (2), Raccoon (38), Possum (36), Squirrel (12), Armadillo (9), Coyote (1), Deer (6), Skunk (5), Rabbit (1), Mouse (1), Turtle (4), Snake (22), Unknown (28)

The "unknown" category above consisted almost exclusively of small to medium sized animals, and I think it is probable that the animal was likely either a possum or a raccoon but was damaged enough that I couldn't tell when cycling past. 

While the absolute numbers of roadkill noted may be meaningless for the reasons I mentioned, perhaps the relative numbers of each category of roadkill noted for each state has some meaning.  For example, in Mississippi I noted 6 possum and only 1 raccoon.  Tennessee was similar with 8 possum noted and only 1 raccoon.  But it began to change in southern Illinois where I noted 3 of each, and that was about the same as Missouri where I noted 12 possum to 10 raccoon.  The ratio then tilted towards more raccoon roadkill as I noted 5 possum to 14 raccoon in central Illinois and 5 possum to 13 raccoon in Iowa. 

     Found Money.  My found money fund was better than I realized.  When I got home and laid it all out, I realized that one of the coins I thought was a penny was actually a very discolored dime, so I had $0.09 more "found money" than I realized. 

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     Lodging Cost.   I did not camp on this journey, I stayed inside every night.  There were 31 nights of lodging for the entire trip, including the first night I arrived at the New Orleans airport.   My lodging cost for the entire trip was $2197.40, but this does not tell the whole story.  I get hotel points on credit cards, and I was able to use points for 5 hotel nights, so you should add on to my cost to account for that.  In addition, I stayed in cyclist hostels for 3 nights.  I left donations totaling $50 for those 3 nights.  You could stay in those hostels for free if you want, but most folks leave at least a small donation, so consider that as well.   I also stayed 1 night in a city fire station with no cost; so then, once again, you may wish to consider some added cost to account for that free night.   Note that I was traveling solo on this journey; if you travel with a partner you could of course split the cost of lodging.  Where I stayed and the cost for each night is listed in each day's entry. 

To summarize; I stayed 7 nights in hotels, 8 nights in motels, 5 nights in a hotel/motel using points, 3 nights in hostels, 2 nights in AirBnB's, 3 nights in BnB's, 1 night in a fire station, and 2 nights in a cottage/cabin.  While most of the places I stayed were nice, 3 were real dumps in serious need of maintenance and remodeling.

     Bad Drivers.  I noted a total of 13 "bad drivers" under that category.   I only counted it as a "bad driver" if the driver did something that endangered me or others.  The most common thing was when a driver passed me safely in the other lane, but did so with oncoming traffic that had to slow down and/or move off the roadway to avoid a collision.  Less common was when a driver passed me too closely or passed me and then cut back over too soon.  I did not count instances of drivers honking at me or yelling at me (there were 3 instances on one day in Missouri) as a "bad driver" statistic; even though they were acting stupidly they did not endanger me.  For what it's worth, and I think this is a very informative point regarding the culture of folks along this route; I noted more bad and misbehaving drivers on this route than I did along the Transam, Northern Tier, and Western Express routes combined.   I didn't record statistics of bad drivers on those other routes, but I remember how relatively well-behaved the drivers were.

Eight of the bad driver incidents occurred in Louisiana and Mississippi, and the rest were fairly evenly spaced out with 1 each in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois and 2 in Missouri.  From a history of commuting to work via bicycle I have noted that hot weather conditions makes drivers more aggressive.  Part of the overweighting of bad drivers noted in Louisiana and Mississippi may be due to the fact that it was still in the low to mid 90's f when I rolled through those states.  The other aspect deals with the heavy traffic found in bigger cities; the more you crowd people together the more they misbehave.  Seven of the 8 bad driver incidents in Louisiana and Mississippi occurred in big cities; 2 of these in Baton Rouge and 5 near Tupelo.  I'll refrain from discussing what I believe are the cultural influences on driver's attitude towards cyclists, other than to say that folks along this route are less likely to appreciate the environmentally positive aspects of cycling as much as folks in other parts of the country.  

     Dog Chases.  I noted 21 instances under this statistic.  I did not count it when a dog ran out to the road and barked at me just to defend his territory, nor did I count it when some pooch chased me a little but it was obvious that I was in no danger.  I only counted it when it was a more aggressive situation such as multiple dogs chasing me, or a dog trying to close in aggressively towards me; if I found myself yelling "Git!" at an aggressive dog or being concerned that a dog was trying to bite me, then I counted it.   I was actually bitten once when a large dog (German Shepherd) took me by surprise before I could do anything to defend myself.   While riding the Northern Tier in 2021 and the Western Express in 2017, I had no dog chases that I recall.  Almost everyone has some dog issues on the Transam through Kentucky and Missouri, and in 2015 I had a few dog chases in Kentucky (none in Missouri that I can recall).  I had significantly more problems with dogs along this route (Great Rivers South) than I did on the Transam, Northern Tier, and Western Express combined.   Dogs don't decide their own fate, of course; it's the people who let them run free to chase cyclists who are to blame. 

     Confederate Flags.  I noted 7 Confederate flags flying at homes along this route, and they were pretty much evenly distributed along the way.  I saw 1 in Mississippi, 2 in Tennessee, 1 in Kentucky, 1 in Illinois, and 2 in Missouri.  In addition there were 30 little flags decorating confederate soldiers graves at a display on the Natchez Trace; I'm not counting these as part of the total because they were being used as a National Park Service historical display.   Similar to my description of the "roadkill" statistic above, I'm sure there were a lot more that I didn't see.  I wasn't looking at every home I passed to try and spot a flag, I mostly only saw the flag if it was being flown prominently out front.   

Display of the Confederate flag has been banned by organizations ranging from the Southern Baptist Convention to NASCAR. It speaks to the culture of the area that folks along this route would fly it prominently.  If you wish to know more about the modern display of the Confederate flag, here's a start --> Confederate Flag Display.

     Average Speed.   I kept records of my average speed for each day and for the entire journey.   I developed a spreadsheet to do the calculations as I went along.  I use a cycle computer that has a trip odometer, and I reset it regularly when changing to a new ACA map or when starting a new day.  I recorded each segment's distance and average speed as given by the cycle computer and wrote those in a little notebook in my handlebar bag.  So for each day I might have several recordings of distances and average speeds for those distances.  I entered each of those into the spreadsheet and it calculated an average speed for the day and updated the cumulative average speed for the overall journey.  My cumulative average speed for the journey was 9.86 mph.   My speed distribution is shown below.

• # of Days Average Speed Was Greater Than 11.0 mph; 5
• # of Days Average Speed Was 10.0 -  11.0 mph; 7
• # of Days Average Speed Was 9.0 - 10.0 mph; 13
• # of Days Average Speed Was 8.0 - 9.0 mph; 4

     Distance Traveled.   The ACA maps indicate that this route is 1,400 miles.  However, to reach lodging you must often go off route, and inevitably there will be road construction detours that add to the total.  In my case the journey from New Orleans to Muscatine was 1,487 miles.  The shortest day was 24 miles and the longest was 75 miles, and I averaged 51.28 miles on riding days.   The riding distance was broken down as follows.

• # of Days I Traveled Less Than 30 miles; 1
• # of Days I Traveled 30 - 40 miles; 6
• # of Days I Traveled 40 - 50 miles; 6
• # of Days I Traveled 50 - 60 miles; 8
• # of Days I Traveled 60 - 70 miles; 6
• # of Days I Traveled More Than 70 miles; 2

     Elevation Gained.  The total amount of climbing on this journey was 63,577 feet. I used Ride With GPS (RWGPS) for the maps and profiles that are displayed in each day's entry, and the climbing statistic was based on the RWGPS calculation of feet climbed.  I entered each day's climbing into a spreadsheet that calculated the accumulated climbing as I went along.  The total climbing doesn't tell the complete story, of course, because the steepness of the grade is a significant factor in the effort required to ascend it. Regardless, following is a breakdown of the total I climbed each day.

• # of Days I Climbed Less Than 1,000 feet; 4
• # of Days I Climbed 1,000 - 2,000 feet; 10
• # of Days I Climbed 2,000 - 3,000 feet; 8
• # of Days I Climbed 3,000 - 4,000 feet; 5
• # of Days I Climbed More Than 4,000 feet; 2

Okay, I think I've analyzed the statistics about every which way now. The numbers don't answer the question of why one would want to ride this route.  I'm still working on that one, and may be for some time to come yet.

Psychedelic Head-Spinning Foray Through America's Underbelly. It was an interesting and somewhat weird trip, from the Louisiana bottom-lands and bayous intermixed with industry, to the Missouri Ozark mountains and forests, from Elvis Presley to Mark Twain, from Cajuns to Rednecks, farmers, business folks and salt-of-the-earth good people. I endured some hardship on this journey and was physically assaulted by both man and beast.   I rode through places that made me think "I could live here," and other places where I felt pity for the folks who had to live there. I rode in temperatures that ranged from 95 degrees f to 26 degrees f with a wind chill below 20 f.  I stayed in hotels/motels, B&B's, AirBnB's, cyclist hostels, and a fire station.  I was often the only person in the place at night (9 times that I recall from memory in places ranging from AirBnB's to a fire station to hostels and even 1 hotel where they left the door unlocked for me and my key in an envelope), so this was a lonely trip.  I rode on pancake-flat roads and climbed crazy steep hills. I was in Illinois, then out of Illinois, then back in Illinois again.  My head was spinning as I rode the bullet train to Iowa and wondered why anyone would do so.

WARNING; The Following Video Is Not Suitable For Anyone!  Certainly it's not suitable for the young'uns, and it's not even suitable for the less mature adults; in fact, this video has no redeeming value whatsoever and probably shouldn't be seen by anyone ever for any reason or under any circumstance.  There is simply no reasonable justification to watch this video, and it's a few minutes of your life that you can never get back. You really shouldn't watch it, but if you do just remember that I told you so. And no, this video was not made in the 1970's.  

Now that I've unloaded the crazy mixture of conflicting thoughts and weird emotions associated with this journey, I'll make some suggestions in the following section that may improve the experience for other cycle tourists who undertake this adventure.