Every day on this ride has, so far, been totally different from the ones before. While today’s weather was outstanding, the roads were flat and straight, miles and miles of flat, straight road.
I started the day at the campground in Blue Earth as most mornings go, organizing, packing, and such but today I included a nice, long hot shower. These are free with the camp fee ($35) and it was wonderful. I should mention that there is also free firewood and good, free wi-fi.
Here’s the shower:
On the way back to my campsite, I took a photo of the street. This is the fairgrounds and it’s set up like a small city.
I sat in the tent and had my breakfast of oatmeal and a nice herbal tea along with a couple gulps of orange juice I still had from when I stayed in Faith, SD. I could see my bike:
Once I got things loaded up I had the first setback of the day as the liner in one glove became inside out and I got tired of trying to refit it so switched to my lightweight mesh gloves. It’s not that cold so they were fine.
The first task of the day is to get gas and then do a tour of the town. First a photo of the water tower.
I’ll have to say, while I like living in a large city with all the amenities, Blue Earth has a really nice feel and I liked the look of it. It has a nice and very clean downtown and many of the homes are wood framed with some craftsman and Victorian style. There is a train that runs through the town and one would get used to its whistle and even adds a nice ambiance to the town. When I looped the east side of the town I saw a huge building and it turned out to be a Seneca canning plant. They are probably doing applesauce or other products there. I’ll have to look that up but I’m pretty sure it’s a big employer in the town.
I sort of collect photos of my bike with county courthouses and this one is pretty awesome.
The visitor/welcome center is known for its 60-foot statue of the Jolly Green Giant so another photo opportunity presented itself.
Across from that are some EV charging stations but, alas, one is out of order. Luckily I don’t need one today.
The route today is to a campground, Illiniwek Forest Reserve, on the Mississippi across from Davenport, Iowa, just north of Rock Island, IL. The Google navigator tool was set to get there and to avoid highways (freeways) and so it took LOTS of backroads. I was traveling on the dark blue line.
I would ride 5-20 miles on one road, turn left and do 5-20 miles on another road, repeat, repeat, repeat, doing a sort of zig-zag heading me basically southeast. This took me past miles and miles of corn fields that look plowed but maybe not yet planted. Here are some random shots from along the way.
I stopped for gas in Radcliffe and it was the least expensive gas I’ve seen: $3.05/gallon. My bike runs on regular which is a good thing since that’s all that I’ve seen available. At this station a guy's faithful dog was along for the ride as he visited.
The route dumped me on 80 miles of US 30 which was like riding The Slab except that there was occasional cross traffic. There wasn’t much joy in this. In Tipton, Iowa I pulled off for lunch. I wanted a salad and a piece of bread so it was a veggie sandwich at Subway with some lemonade. It really hit the spot. When I left there, the navigation software routed me back to Hwy 30 the long way so I got some backroads that had a few curves. Finally.
The rest of the ride was more of the same until I came into Davenport. It was Friday afternoon traffic, which really wasn’t that bad, but the software directed me through some depressed areas of town before it had me cross the Mississippi River on a cool bridge and dropped me into Rock Island, IL. I ended up going north through the city on 5th Avenue, a long ride, before I finally got out of town and found the campground.
This is the Illiniwek Forest Reserve and it’s really nice. It’s a mix of primitive (no water/electricity) tent sites and regular RV site and the tent sites are right on the river. It was $21 for the tent site and I a literally right on the river.
They have wi-fi here that is slow but it works so I’m hoping to get this posted today if my photos ever make their way from my phone to the cloud and down to the iPad I’m writing on.
Next up is to get dinner started but there is no rush because the late lunch,
Today’s ride was 345 miles.
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