Day 61: Roller Coaster Hills!

In many ways, today was a lot like yesterday.  It was reasonably flat in the morning and a little too hilly in the afternoon.  But the scenery was excellent, with many interesting vistas along the way, and the wind was blowing in the right direction most of the time.  A favorite view was the climb up the bluff before Louisiana, MO, but we didn't manage to get a picture of that (often there isn't any place to get off the road to park along these roads).

Yet another Mississippi River vista - this one at Louisiana, MO.

Alea arrives at Louisiana, MO - part of our route has mirrored the historic Little Dixie Highway.

But Louisiana was a nice town, with a lot of riverfront parks and some great views, as shown above.

For her second day of riding in a row, Alea found that a bridge was out on her planned route.  We took a look at where she was being detoured, and it added about another five miles to a day that was expected to be longer than either of us would have liked.

Deja vu all over again - another bridge closure for Alea, this one on Hwy 79.

But just past the detour Alea had a flat tire, so I returned to help sort that out for her:

Think of whistling "Whistle While You Work."  It's hard to say which dwarf I was channeling
at this precise moment, but it isn't always Grumpy when I'm fixing a flat (just most of the time).  ;-)

We did some Googling and found a couple of gravel roads (the road[s] less traveled) that actually shaved a couple of miles off the main route and shortened the detour considerably.  It had plenty of gentle rollers, but with some great views toward the end of the route.

Alea takes the road less traveled (those hills in the background don't show up so well in this picture)....

A restored limestone farmhouse and a great view from the road less traveled.

Made it!  The end of the gravel road detour.

Not long after getting back on route, the roller coaster hills started.  Some were gentle rollers, others were long and steep, with a matching descent.  After about 50 miles in the saddle, Alea was happy to have me take over for the remaining dozen miles or so.  And even for me, on a road bike weighing less than 20 pounds, there were some of those hills that slowed me down to less than 7 mph!  And the Ozarks are worse...

We eventually made it to Cuivre (pronounced like quiver) State Park ($21, power and showers), though Alea relied a bit too much on some local directions and got turned around a bit and had a hard time finding it.  But we eventually got that sorted out and had another pleasant evening together.

Day 60: South of Hannibal, MO

Another day and another state visited - Missouri.  A cooling trend has resulted in a tailwind for most of today: a classic case of mixed blessings.  It was a relatively short day today (42 miles), though I can't help wish that the morning and afternoon had been reversed.  It was mainly flat in the morning when it was cool and sunny, and plenty of roller coaster hills in the afternoon when it started to heat up.  Fortunately, the clouds starting rolling in, and thus kept things from heating up even more.

Schizophrenic freeway signs - you can't ride your bicycle here...

Or can you?

We passed through Hannibal, MO around noon and had thought about seeing some sights.  But the main street was being paved today, cutting traffic down to one lane and making parking next to impossible.  We also considered seeing the Mark Twain Caverns, but nearly $40 for a one hour tour seemed a bit steep.  So we pressed on after getting restocked on groceries.

Entering Missouri, with Mark Twain landscaping on the left.

Thus far I haven't commented on gasoline prices, which more often than not are higher in Boise than most of the rest of the country (except California, with their stricter emission standards).  But we purchased gas for $2.06 per gallon today, which I believe is the lowest we've seen.  It could be that the seasonal decrease in traffic once school starts is creating another glut of available fuel.

Today was my second riding day in a row where I had a puncture (while riding just south of Quincy), which was once again on the (new) rear wheel.  Whatever caused the hole stayed on the road, but it caused the tire to go flat very quickly.  I was in the process of getting things put back together when Alea caught up with me in the van.  That was fortuitous, as it saved me from having to use a CO2 cartridge, and enabled me to use one of the spares in the van's drawer pedestal, so that I still had a spare with me for the remainder of the ride.

At least the sun was shining when my tire went flat!

One of the interesting sights today was a collection of wind mills along I-72.  I'm guessing these were pumping windmills and not the electricity generating kind.  At least most of the latter that I've seen were made by AeroMotor.  They were the chief electric power source for rural farms prior to the New Deal's Rural Electrification program.  They generated 32 volts DC, and 32 volt appliances were becoming fairly common prior to Rural Electrification.

An interesting collection of windmills.

We are camping for free tonight along the Mississippi River at Dupont Conservation Area.  The only amenities are the campsites themselves and some new vault toilets.  It has been overcast and windy, with the wind signaling a coming change in the weather.  The lows should dip into the upper 40s tomorrow and will top out in the upper 60s.

Day 59: Quincy, IL

We started out the day thinking we'd be spending time in Keokuk, IA researching my third great grandparents, Thomas and Elizabeth (Van Anglen) McEveny.  But we found out early in the day that the recorder's office was not open on Mondays (only on Tuesdays and Thursdays).  That's because the land records in Lee County, IA are split between Fort Madison (those records are available Monday through Friday) and Keokuk.  The odds that I was going to find much of interest were fairly small, so we opted not to hang around until the recorder's office opened on Tuesday.

A mailbox in Warsaw, IL.

It was a very scenic ride for most of the morning, with the road following the edge of a dammed portion of the Mississippi River for quite a while.  After we reached Warsaw, the valley widened into a massive floodplain with an active corn harvest in progress.  The harvest traffic wasn't too bad along that stretch of the route, until Alea came upon this sign:

Road closed 3.5 miles ahead.

It meant that we'd have to detour onto the main highway, and that the main highway would have more harvest traffic than normal.  And that road had no shoulders!

Alea managed to survive Hwy 96 between Lima and Ursa, though only by driving off onto the soft shoulder five different times when she could see harvest trucks driving north and hear other harvest trucks bearing down from behind on their way south.  But after Ursa (about 7 miles down the road) there were paved shoulders all the way into Quincy, IL.

At the beginning of the detour road there was a crew painting the yellow centerline stripe.  They had flaggers out and were forcing all traffic into one lane.  The flagger directed us and the two cars in front of us over fresh paint, spattering yellow paint over the driver's side of the van and trailer.  The trailer got it particularly bad.

Needless to say, we weren't pleased.  But we managed to get most of it off at a car wash.  And the bits that we missed will likely come off easily enough the next time we go to another car wash.  After washing, I took the time to finally (after three full years) to clean the trailer's stainless steel fenders with a purple Scotchbrite Pad.  I figured a picture would be an interesting contrast to what the fender had looked like earlier in the day:

Ooh!  Shiny!

Once I got to Quincy I headed straight for Madison-Davis Bicycle Shop (a Trek dealer), where I was able to get a new rear wheel installed for $150.  It's not as fancy as the one it is replacing (which would have been over $400), but it will get the job done.  Needless to say, the van's polka dot jersey theme was a hit with the staff!

Yet another good reason to camp in a teardrop (narrow underpasses)!
In Quincy, IL at Cedar and Bonanzinga.

Alea covered the 52.2 miles to Quincy, IL in good time, allowing us time to do chores (which included laundry, in addition to bike repairs and car washing).  We camped at a former KOA, Driftwood Campground ($20 - power, water and showers).  We had one of the three cheapest campsites, each carved into the hillside with lots of privacy.  They were a lot nicer and more private than the more expensive sites with sewer connections.

Days 56-58: CICO & Nauvoo, IL

We had a great time at the 12th Annual Camp Inn Camp Outt at Castle Rock (Juneau) County Park, getting a chance to meet a few people that we'd gotten to know a bit on the Unofficial Camp Inn Forum over the past few years.  It gave us a chance to see how others have adapted their campers/accessories to fit their particular lifestyles and to hear some of their war stories.  We found a few gear ideas that appeal to us, though we'll probably wait until we're parked for the winter to make any changes.  And we also have several thoughts about how we'll reorganize parts of the interior of the van to have it better fit our needs.  But we're pretty happy with how everything is working now - all of the planned changes are just minor refinements.

Some of our neighbors at CICO.

When we ordered our van we originally wanted custom leather seat covers, as dog hair and dog smells are not nearly as problematic with leather as they can be with fabric seat covers (and leather is much easier to keep clean).  Due to the delay in getting our trailer, we had requested that the leather order be cancelled, but after we had been on the road for a couple of weeks Corwin Ford called us to let us know that the leather had arrived.  There is a whole long sordid story about what transpired next, but suffice it to say that two months later we ended up buying the leather kit for their cost and will attempt to get it installed while we are in Florida, where it will be waiting for us.

I think we heard that there were about 190 people in this year's CICO (and 30 dogs).  That's about 90 trailers, about 30% of which were not Camp Inns (many were custom built teardrops, though some were tents).  Of the 53 Camp Inn Trailers that were there, I think there were just slightly more 500/550 teardrops models than there were 560 raindrops (which are two feet longer than our 550).  It sounds as though the 560s are becoming the more popular model, but for our money, the 550 is a much better design (bigger isn't always better).  That probably sounds like heresy to the 560 owners, but the extra loveseat in the 560 to us seems to create more problems than it solves (and no, we aren't just rationalizing the fact that we bought a 550).  We were on the fence about getting a 560 for quite a while before we made our decision, as there were aspects of the 560 that had appealed to us.

We bugged out of the campground fairly early this morning, opting to skip the 8 am group breakfast.  With nearly 300 miles to cover to get back to our route, plus another 36 miles of cycling to get us to Nauvoo State Park, we figured that it might be hard to break away from the breakfast in a timely manner.  It was good that we left early, as we arrived at our return point about the time that we thought we would have gotten there if we had left the breakfast by 9:30 am (OK, we did get a little lost on some Wisconsin backroads).

It was up to me to ride the 30+ miles to Nauvoo State Park ($20 with electricity and showers).  And about 5 miles out of town I got a sharp nail through my rear tire, and so stopped to fix it.  While making the repair I noticed several cracks in the rim of the wheel, and it was slightly out of true.  So that wheel has to be replaced, as if one of those cracks fails catastrophically that wheel could fold up like tin foil, meaning the bike would instantly stop moving and I'd likely be propelled through the air in an undesirable manner.  

One of our jobs in the coming days will be to track down a replacement.  We tried calling the bike shop in Fort Madison, IA late this afternoon, but somebody must've been talking to their girlfriend, because we got a busy signal for a solid half hour before we finally gave up.  We might be able to find something downriver in Quincy, IL.  If not, then a St. Louis suburb will be the next best bet.  We are thinking that on the days that I ride I'll try using Alea's rear wheel, as I'm pretty sure the gearing is fairly similar (though I may need to adjust the derailleur a bit for that to work optimally).

Day 55: Gulf Port, IL and CICO

Yesterday was time for us to drive up to the Camp Inn Camp Outt to finally meet a large number of other Camp Inn teardrop trailer owners.  But from Flaming Prairie Campground their seemed to be a dearth of acceptable campgrounds along the route of our first full day heading south on Adventure Cycling's Great Rivers South route.  That would mean that we'd have a very long day riding on our first day back from CICO, unless we could conceive of a way to shorten the distance. 

We pondered that situation for a while (a common use of our time spent sitting around the campfire at night) and decided we'd get some miles in the saddle before piling everything into the van and heading north to CICO.  We decided that we'd each do a leg of a planned 40 mile ride, but that we'd do the riding simultaneously, a departure from our usual routine, which meant that Lana would be alone in the van until Alea made it to my departure point.  To do that, Alea set off to ride the 16 miles to Oakville, while Lana and I drove there.  From Oakville, Lana got a quick walk and a few treats and then I set off on the 24 mile ride to where our route turned south a few miles east of Gulf Port, IL.  Once Alea got to Oakville it was another walk for Lana and then she raced to catch up with me, overtaking me about two miles from our planned rendezvous point.  The result was that we covered the 40 miles in under two hours, and were heading north by 9:30 am.  That gives us options of either a 40 or 55 mile ride for our first day's riding once we rejoin our cycling route (instead of a minimum 80 mile ride, if we had headed for CICO directly from the campground).

The rest of the afternoon was boring: six or seven hours of driving, resulting in our first case of "car butt" since we got Loraine (our van).  But we arrived at Castle Rock Park (in Juneau County - there is more than one) late in the afternoon, finding dozens of other teardrops sprinkled chaotically among the campsites in our designated corner of the park.

So the plan for this weekend is to enjoy some time out of the saddle and to meet some other teardrop owners (and to see if any of them have some interesting ideas that we can adopt for use with our camper).

Day 54: Flaming Prairie Campground

Once again we have the merest thread of an internet connection, which we achieved by walking around the campground with our mifi until we lucked into a connection.

We're camping about a dozen miles south of Muscatine, next to a Mississippi River levee, at Flaming Prairie Campground ($12, power.  Water available, vault toilets).  It's not nearly as buggy as last night, and it looks likely that we'll be the only campers here tonight.

Our campsite at Flaming Prairie Campground.

A happy Lana plays in the Mississippi River while a tug pushes loaded barges upstream.

Alea and I rendezvoused this morning at a laundromat in Muscatine.  She drove, while I a rode the roughly 25 miles or so.  When I arrived I unhitched the trailer and went in search of land records related to Thomas Chinn (I had found an online probate index for Muscatine County, and he was not listed on it).  When I was done we did our grocery shopping together, then returned to the laundromat, where I pulled my bike back out of the van and we went our separate ways the 15 miles or so to tonight's campground.

THOMAS CHINN
I found no land record for him, though I'd want to recheck the index before stating categorically that he owned no land in Muscatine County.  Their land records are handled a bit differently than most counties, and having additional time would assure me that I hadn't missed anything.  And if land records are not available, the next avenue to check would be the various non-probate court records.  Sometimes if someone is involved in a legal matter, the relationships of witnesses are stated.  And if not stated, it is usually a close family member of some sort, if the surname is the same.  

If it is correct that there is no land record for Thomas Chinn in Muscatine County, then in my mind it casts doubt that this Chinn line connects as stated in my previous post.  It's been a while since I delved deeply into this family line, but my recollection is that the fabled Chinn family had some prime land in Marion County, IN (near present day Indianapolis) before moving farther west.  If so, you'd think there would be a land record in Iowa for the offspring of a well-to-do family, especially for someone who was among the first residents of Muscatine County, arriving in 1839 (when land was dirt cheap).

It seems fairly clear that this is very likely what I call a 'Franken-genealogy' - someone has pieced together lineages based upon two or more people that share a common name and similar vital record dates, without proving that they are the same person.  Most people accept it because they like the result, but I'd rather have an unknown ancestor than the wrong one (famous or not).  The more prudent way to continue researching the Chinns would be to focus on Chichester Chinn and his land holdings in central Indiana (we'll likely be there next spring or summer).  At least that way I'd be starting from a clear factual basis.  

Sorry, GW - our relationship is not looking too promising at present!

Day 53: Bennett, IA

It was an interesting night last night at the campground outside of Cascade.  There were several dozen RVs parked at campsites there, many of which had ATVs parked next to them (most of which were covered by tarps).  But we didn't see one other person in the campground, nor did we see any sign of any tow vehicles.  It was odd, but also nice to have the place seemingly to ourselves.

Circa 1930s silo constructed of limestone blocks at Cascade, IA.

It has warmed up a bit and become a bit more humid, though it has been overcast most of the day.  The winds continued to be against us, but they were fair enough that they didn't affect our progress as much as they had the past few days.  And the rolling hills no longer seem as steep as those we experienced over the past few days.

One of our leapfrogging stops today was Oxford Junction.  It was interesting in that the City Hall is located in an old two-pump DX gas station.  But perhaps more interesting was the fact that within two blocks there were two other old two-pump gas station buildings!  They certainly give the impression that Oxford Junction was at one time an important crossroads (it is located on the old Lincoln Highway, which I believe was the first transcontinental US Highway).

Oxford Junction, IA city hall.

We are camped at Bennett Campground, which is by far the best bargain that we have come across for a campsite with power and water - $10 per night (and that seems to include a free supply of campfire wood)!  The vault toilets are in reasonably good condition, but the one downside is that this is perhaps the buggiest place we've stayed at.

The main culprit is a tiny black flying insect.  The bites aren't bad, but there are a lot of these little guys.  DEET doesn't deter them, so we've tried some Lemon Eucalyptus spray, which seems to at least make things better.  We've set up our bug shelter for now, but later we'll need to see whether or not the spray is sufficient to allow us to enjoy a campfire tonight.

So we finally are barely within range of AT&T for our mifi (one bar of 4G coverage) and are now a couple dozen miles from Muscatine, which sits on the Mississippi River across from Illinois.  It will be a major resupply and laundry point, and it will be my first opportunity to explore part of my family history.

SOME TENTATIVE CHINN GENEALOGY
My great grandmother was Irene Margaret (Chinn) Adams.  There are clear public records that her grandfather was Chichester Chinn (b. 1803, d. 1848).

There also is a history of the Glassell family which documents several families with ties to many of the early presidents of the United States.  It includes a considerable genealogy of Rawleigh Chinn (b. 1684, d. 1741), husband of Esther Ball.  One of their sons was Chichester C. Chinn, husband of Agatha Thornton.  There seem to be adequate records to prove that they had a son named Thomas Thornton Chinn, who married Jennet Scott (a descendant, I believe, of the grandfather of Sir Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe).

It is thought that Thomas Thornton Chinn was the father of Thomas Scott Chinn, who is believed to have been the father of our Chichester Chinn (d. 1848).

Family lore has it that Thomas Scott Chinn died in Muscatine, IA in the late 1850s and was buried at Ferry Cemetery.  Unfortunately, the cemetery was wiped out in a flood, and the courthouse burned down in 1864 (there are conflicting accounts as to how many, if any, records survived the latter tragedy).  So the goal tomorrow will be to search for probate or land records that prove when Thomas Scott Chinn died and who his children were.

One of Chichester's sons was James Scudder Chinn (Irene Chinn's father).  His obituary is where it is stated that our line of Chinns is related to Sir Walter Scott.  It also states that his mother was Sally Jackson, in whose veins "ran the same blood that made the famous Andrew Jackson the general."  It doesn't state that she was a direct descendant of Andrew Jackson (which isn't possible, as President Andrew Jackson never had any children of his own), and he was an orphan, so any connection would have been to his grandfather or an earlier generation.  At least one family history researcher feels the reference should have been to General Stonewall Jackson, but information found at the website of Virginia Military Institute fails to show an obvious connection to either Stonewall Jackson or his ancestors.  So that is yet another puzzle to solve, if sufficient facts ever present themselves.

If this Chinn line can be proven back to Rawleigh Chinn, then I am a first cousin (eight times removed) to President George Washington (woo-hoo!).  This is the only "blue blood" line in our family tree.  So while it is nice to have a connection to someone famous, it is our only family line known to have owned significant numbers of slaves and to have been the recipients of lots of royal land grants.  The other family lines were of more humble origins.

Days 50-52: Cascade, IA

We've been without internet access for a few days now, as we seem to be in some sort of AT&T dead zone.  We managed to find coverage briefly this morning in St. Petersburg, IA, but that appears to have been an anomaly.  Right now I'm in Cascade, IA at the public library, as they have free wifi, as there is no AT&T coverage here.

Our stay at Wildcat Landing was interesting.  There appears to be a large Hmong population in the area, and every campsite they occupy seems to have two or more cars and at least three tents.  Then a guy with a propane brush burner goes around from site to site, where each fire ring is crammed with a half dozen or more logs, and gets everyone's campfire roaring.  And of course the whole extended family is on hand, from grandparents to the tiniest newborns.  So it was the most active campground we've ever been at thus far.  For some reason, around 4 am car doors were being opened and closed, car headlights shone from every direction and it generally was an interesting morning scramble, which was narrated in a language that was quite foreign to us.  I had presumed that some of the Hmong were heading out to their favorite fishing spots, but a ranger at the next campground we stayed at said that at this time of year they have a big family squirrel hunt, ending in lots of squirrels being skewered and roasted over open fires.  It seems like a lot of work for a little meat, but the skins can make great gloves, so perhaps there is more too it than just a big squirrel fry?

A barge heads downriver in front of our campground.

After leaving Brownsville we headed south, at times having some great views of the Mississippi River.  We also had plenty of hills whenever the road routed over the bluffs, and most roads were narrow with no shoulder.  But for the most part traffic was fairly light.  We did stop and explore Effigy Mounds National Monument, a series of mounds created by early Native Americans, some of which were arranged in the shape of animals, including at least two in the shape of bears.  These mound builders were busy all through the Midwest, with perhaps some of the largest mounds being found at Cahokia, near where my father was born in East Saint Louis, IL.  It has piqued our interest enough that we may try to visit there when we are in the area, if time allows.

Two views of some of the mounds at Effigy Mounds:

Two views of the Mississippi River from one of the trails at Effigy Mounds:

We ended up camping at Bloody Run County Campground ($10, primitive sites) just outside of Marquette, IA.  It was an awesome little campground, basically a huge meadow studded with very large mature trees and lots of space between campsites.

Our campsite at Bloody Run Campground.

Yesterday was a challenging day for Alea, as the winds once again shifted and came from the south, increasing in intensity as the day wore on.  We traveled as far as Colesburg, IA, where we headed south in search of a campsite.  We ended up staying at Twin Bridges Campground, located about 4 miles south of town.  At $16 per night for a site with power and water, it could easily have been our favorite campsite thus far.  It was similar to Bloody Run in terms of the meadow and large mature trees, but the one drawback was that the vault toilet was seriously in need of being pumped out.  And of course we made the mistake of choosing a campsite close to the toilet, so it wasn't fun when the wind would start blowing from the wrong direction. 

We ventured into town for a Sunday dinner at J. R. Willies, a tavern.  We played it safe and we each opted for the signature menu item, the Willie Whopper, since it was a limited menu on Sundays.  They were huge, but our appetites have grown with the daily cycling, so we were quite happy to have found a friendly place for a very satisfying evening meal.

The previous tenants of our campsite had left a big pile of scrap lumber for us to burn, so we set about building a campfire, in the hopes that it would screen the smell from the toilets (it did a pretty good job).

Lana's evening hideout - tucked into her bed while we enjoy a campfire!

The picture above is a typical scene in the evenings right now.  At some point Lana will get out of her bed and look at the door to the camper.  That's our clue that she thinks she'd be warmer and more comfortable if we let her inside.  Once she's in there she goes about rearranging all the pillows and building a nest in a portion of the goose down comforter..

Tonight we are staying at Riverview Ridge Campground ($30, power, with showers available), just outside of Cascade, IA.  It's a newer campground, so the showers and toilets are in better shape than most of the places that we've stayed.  We're glad to be there tonight, as we both were at the point where we were craving a chance to get cleaned up again.  

Like yesterday, there were brisk winds coming out of the south, combined with plenty of rolling hills.  And then when we got to Farley, IA we found out that our intended route was closed, as the road had been torn up and was being reconstructed.  The official detour to Cascade, IA sent us back to a town we had passed through earlier, so Alea asked at a local convenience store about available alternatives.  We were told to head south and look for Roller Coaster Road in about 3-4 miles.  At about six miles out the road still hadn't materialized, making us wonder if there was a missing part of the directions?  But just as we were about to stop and ask for directions, we found it.  Sure enough, from there it was easy enough to find our way to Cascade and our campground.

We're right about at the halfway point for reaching St. Augustine, Florida.  We should be at around 2,500 miles cycled so far, and St. Augustine should be around 5,000 miles by our Adventure Cycling route.  If we maintain the same pace we've kept thus far, then it will be close to Thanksgiving before we reach the Atlantic Coast.  But time will tell, as there are lots of variables that could conspire to make us choose a faster or slower pace.

Day 49: Brownsvile, MN

There was some pretty good rain last night, but no hail (at least that we noticed).  But by daybreak the skies were clear and it wasn't long before it started warming up.  While walking the dog this morning we ran into a couple that we had met nearly three weeks ago at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park in North Dakota.  With the speed that we travel that's only happened one other time that we've been aware of (but I think our polka dot van might be more memorable than most vehicles).

Views from 600 feet above the Mississippi at Great River Bluffs State Park.

Today's ride was probably one of the most scenic of our travels, along Winona County Road 1, which is just south of I-90 were it crosses the Mississippi River at La Crosse, WI.  It follows the ridge line of a bluff probably 400 or 500 feet above the river, affording excellent views of the river marshes, the main shipping channel of the Mississippi and some of the towns and cities in the area.

Alea rides into camp...

It was also a very short riding day - only 25 miles total - due to the spacing of available campgrounds along our route.  We're camped at Wildcat Landing and Campground ($34.20, power only), which is jointly operated by the local county and the Corps of Engineers.  Lana loves it here, as the Mississippi is very shallow and affords her the opportunity to play ball in the water (her favorite activity).

Our sunny weather didn't last all that long, though.  Another line of storms is expected to come through about the same time as last night.  So we've once again prepared a dinner that can be taken inside if the weather makes cooking outside unpleasant.

Days 47 & 48: Currently at Great Bluffs State Park, MN

Alea had a hilly, but relatively short and easy, 30 mile ride from Frontenac State Park to Kruger Campground ($14, primitive sites with no showers) yesterday.  But the high humidity returned, making it fairly uncomfortable once we arrived at the campground, except when the occasional breeze stirred.  By nightfall the breezes were plentiful, thanks to a storm system that rolled through, lighting up the sky and providing lots of rain and even some pea sized hail (the sound of which woke us up in the middle of the night).

There was plenty of pastoral scenery to admire...

I was optimistic that fair weather had returned this morning when I set off for Great Bluffs State Park.  But that optimism faded quickly, as I got soaked to the bone in a rain storm and even got pelted with some of that same pea sized hail from last night.  We looked up the storm on the weather radar, and it was tracking to the NE, with wind coming from the SW.  It was close to passing over us, so it wasn't long before it was simply dry and cloudy, but by then I was pretty uncomfortable from riding in wet cycling clothes, and there was still plenty of water on the roadways being kicked up by some fairly heavy traffic.  Our route called for us to meander through farmlands to bypass bits of busy Hwy 61, but I decided to shorten the route by staying on Hwy 61.  That allowed us to head straight for the campground, as I wasn't anxious to get caught in more bad weather.  Fortunately, the high bluffs along the Mississippi River blocked a fair amount of the wind as I was riding south, so I made good time.  That is, until the turnoff to the park, where there was easily a 10%+ grade of a mile and a half that I had to negotiate.  Needless to say, by that point I was already pretty well buggered, but I managed to grind it out.

Part of our route mirrored Minnesota's Missouri River Bicycle Trail.

Ready or not, here I come - wet and grumpy!

It may not look like it, but at the end of the ride I was still soaked.

Since we got to camp early, we set out to get resupplied in La Crosse, WI, the last big city we'll see for a while.  Now we're at camp anticipating the return of the thunderstorms, which are forecast to roll through between 4pm and 10pm this evening.  It's looking as though it is not a night to cook outside, so we picked up some deli food while in town.  We are prepared to race outside to get that out of the galley so that we can eat in the cabin, if the storms show up sooner rather than later.

Days 44, 45 & 46: WI & MN

We arrived at Wm. O'Brien State Park on Sunday, and opted to stay a second night in order to drive into Minneapolis to do some shopping (mainly a trip to REI).  Our plan was to head out today with the thought of reaching St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park.  But when we Googled the park yesterday we found that they don't allow pets.  We attempted to find other camping options, but everything was out of our normal daily riding range.  On top of that, we'd be heading south and the forecast was for strong south winds.

A highlight of the trip from Grandy - passing through Sunrise, MN, the home town of Richard Widmark!

Lana sits on a sandstone ledge overlooking the St. Croix River
with Wisconsin in the background.

Another view of WI from a different vantage point.

A frog hitched a ride on the grill of our van!

The frog, as we were encouraging him (her?) to move on...

It looked as though the best bet for camping tonight would be Frontenac State Park ($31, power - showers and water available), but that was 82 miles south and we'd be bucking a pretty good headwind.  On top of that, there is a big construction project going on just south of Stillwater, which we would have to pass through on our way there.  We decided that I'd hop on my bike and ride that 16 mile leg on Monday (so that we wouldn't have to drive through the construction during the morning rush hour), and then we'd return to our campsite at Wm. O'Brien for the evening.

This morning we got up at first light, piled everything into the van and retraced my steps from the previous afternoon.  We stopped for breakfast and then I headed out.  On top of the wind, the rolling hills have become both steeper and longer, so our plan was to split the day between us.  I'd ride until I thought I needed a break, then Alea would take over, then I'd resume once I felt I had the stamina to complete the day's ride.

So I rode 28 miles or so from Minnesota Highway 36 south of Stillwater to Prescott, WI.  Alea took over until just a bit north of Red Wing, MN (about 18 miles).  At that point I continued on the final 20 or so miles to Frontenac State Park, while she stayed in Red Wing to shop for groceries.

An interesting railroad bridge that crosses the St. Croix and Prescott, WI.

By afternoon the winds were a steady 15-20 mph, with gusts over 30 mph.  So needless to say that by the time we arrived at the campground we'd expended our day's allotment of energy.

Our original plan was to stay here two nights, as yesterday we had planned out the rest of our itinerary as far as Muscatine, IA.  But it turns out that their is no camping allowed at our next planned stop, despite what our Adventure Cycling map says.  That left us with two choices: to ride farther than we'd like to, or to have a series of shorter days and no day off.  We've opted for the latter, and tomorrow we will be aiming for a campground just 30 miles down the road (since the strong winds will still be with us).