Thursday, May 31, 2007 Keokuk, IA

I am actually writing this on Friday because I had such a busy day yesterday and a very bad Internet connection yesterday. When I sat down to write this I had to think what I rode yesterday. Honestly some days just seem like a blur.

Actually Thursday, May 31 was a very good day of riding for me. Edith and I were really flying. We did 64.63 miles at an average speed of 14.6 miles per hour. I not sure what caused us to go so fast, the mountain dew I drank, the red bull I drank or the horrible road conditions. We had some light rain when we began and a few hills but the road in the beginning had a very good shoulder. At the first sag stop we got the word that our route was going to have to change. We were scheduled to take a ferry across the Mississippi River from Iowa to Illinois. Well it seems the Coast Guard did and inspection of the ferry earlier that morning and shut it down. That meant we did not get to ride on nice quiet back roads but rather the highway with lots of big trucks. Well it started off OK with a nicely paved shoulder but it went down hill quickly. The road went to two lanes and no shoulder. It was awful. One of the women took a fall trying to get from the uneven shoulder onto the road. Fortunately she only had some road rash and a badly bruised thumb.

Edith and forged onward. We made the decision to watch traffic closely. If a truck was coming up behind us and there was nothing coming in front we would hold our lane. If there was a truck coming from both directions we would stop and move off the road. It worked well. We had no problems. We made it safely to our hotel. Everyone ultimately made it safely but over half had to sag through the construction zone.

Once everyone was safely at the motel Jenna organized a taxi to take herself, Edith and me to Nauvoo, Ill. Nauvoo is the site of the Mormon exodus to Salt Lake. It was very interesting. I learned a lot about the LDS members who left Nauvoo for Salt Lake. I will try to post some pictures on rest day.