IlInKy

Brrr. We also seem to have found fall weather. Or what seems to me to be winter weather. The lows were in the high 30s last night, the highs eventually reached the mid-50s, so I rode with almost all my layers almost all day. I guess that's going to happen soon at home, too. But it was beautifully sunny. So we ran across a couple on the Honker trail who told us we really should visit Gray County State Park, it's famous for the fall colors, so maybe be prepared for crowds. So here we are. We drove up to Nashville (not THAT one - there's also one in Indiana, and as it happens, one in Illinois. Who knew?) yesterday on a gloomy day. We are staying in a nice local motel with a super friendly staff. But the walls are paper thin and we had neighbors last night...Two women (one happened to announce in her penetrating voice that she was 74) seemed to be playing poker, and the louder one was not doing well. She offered a continuous stream of comments to her pal, very little of which

We rode out from our hotel in Louisville yesterday morning. There's a really nice loop that goes along the Ohio River for several miles, then up & over the Lewis & Clark Bridge, which has a separate bike/pedestrian path, then along the river on the Indiana side, over the bike/pedestrian Big Four Bridge (according to Wikipedia:  It took its name from the defunct  Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway , which was nicknamed the "Big Four Railroad")  back into Louisville. Although there was some traffic, and the River Road has no shoulder, it is a popular bike route and the cars seemed polite, or at least resigned to our presence. There were several chances to ride on bike paths or driveways through parks which we took happily. Louisville is a city that reminds me more of coastal cities than the smaller cities we have seen so far. It feels more vibrant. There are tons of waterfront activities and trails, there is a lot of public art, including (wish i

I spotted this area on a map as I looked for ideal stops on this trip. It's a huge National Recreation Area, a long, narrow strip of land sandwiched between two long, narrow lakes. When we got there and read some of the signs and saw some of the exhibits at the visitor center, we learned that it was actually two rivers, but that people decided to rearrange things and turn them into lakes surrounding the land. You cross a big, new bridge to reach the area. The area is several miles across and maybe 50 or 60 miles long. There's a major road across the middle, a major road down the length of it, and several minor roads wandering around the two narrow sides of the lengthwise road.When we arrived, the weather was still pretty gloomy, so we went to the visitor center, picked up a few maps and lists, chatted with the woman at the desk, and decided to drive through the elk & bison prairie area. We would not have been allowed there on bicycles (or motorcycles). It's a large fenc

We rode a Rails to Trails route today - Tunnel Hill Trail, which runs for 47 miles across southern Illinois. We only rode about 13 miles, from Vienna to the southwest end of the trail where we found a wetlands preserve that kept us happy and busy for quite  awhile. Plenty of wood ducks, and a fair assortment of other local birds. Bruce spent a happy hour or two checking up on the plants. Then we rode back. Flat, flat, flat, very well maintained.     Then we got back in the car. Felt weird, but as we drove south, we wondered how the roads would have been. The relatively minor road we chose to take was narrow - no shoulder at all - and fairly busy. Might have been a bit unnerving. But that was nothing compared to what we found as we entered Kentucky. There are two bridges going into Paducah; one is freeway, so we took the other to see what we had missed.   We had missed a fairly long bridge with zero shoulder or sidewalk, plus one of those metal grating surfaces all the way across.

We are taking a rest day today. We have been riding more days than I anticipated, and spending less time looking around. So we decided to do some planning, which led to Bruce's departure to pick up a rental car. We have enjoyed the trip so far, and if I had another month to finish it, I would keep right on with what we are doing. But we don't have another month, and we do still have a lot of places we want to see. We have ridden about 375 miles s far - in 12 days - we have 13 days to go, and to see everything would involve about 900 miles of riding. It would be possible to ride in Kentucky and Indiana by just cutting through little bits (especially Kentucky; Indiana could get us right back to the Chicago area). But we'd miss the high points. So we are now going to do the travel days by car, and just ride in the areas we really want to see (exchange quantity for quality rides?). I have never been to these areas before. What are the chances I will be back to take a closer l

Tuesday was to be a longer day than the rest have been. To get to Carbondale, Bruce, who had originally said he wanted to keep daily mileage under 50, had proposed this route. No problem, as far as I was concerned. We made a point of being ready early in the day - left at 9AM when other days have been closer to 9. George, our host Monday night, had made some great suggestions about roads, so we headed out with his choices in mind. Of course, Google was forever trying to route us around some of the main roads. Sometimes that was a good idea, others, not so much. But with only a couple of stops to rearrange ourselves, we were on the route to Pyramid State Recreation area. We got there late in the morning, and actually took one of the side roads to get a better look at the birds and plants and general views. I didn't see a whole lot of variety, but did see two birds that had not been reported at the location previously. No, I am not a super-birder; I am pretty sure they just get ver