Back to adventures
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 very few reports from there. I think the area is mostly used for hunting and fishing. Neither bird was rare or hard to identify, and neither one was a life bird for me. Still, it's sort of fun to make a report like that.
We went on, and for a while, all was well. We were headed for the nearest gas station/convenience store. I didn't have a whole lot of water - enough to get by, and it was not a hot day - but I thought it would be nice to find some more. We took one of the suggested routes, and found ourselves back in adventureland. I stopped for a small bite to eat, and when I bent over to pick up my Camelbak, my bike tipped over. I was still straddling it. Oops. And it somehow managed to wedge my knee between the front wheel and the frame. Ouch. But Bruce pulled it up, I had only minor bumps, and we went on our way.
The next turn Google offered was a Bad Road. Not just unpaved, aggressively unpaved. Lots of loose dirt and big rocks. Plus a sign referring to coal. I think it must have been a truck entranced to some sort of mining facility. Way to go, Google.
Next road was actually very nice, and took us to the main road a few miles north of the gas station. Only on the main road we soon encountered road construction. Pavement cat-scratched all over, shoulder a bit better but with lots of debris, and signs announcing a one lane, one way road in our future. Fortunately, the one way part still had a shoulder, because it was fairly long and we would have been pretty unpopular if the other direction had to wait for us to get through.
At the end of that section was our gas station. A few gas pumps under an awning. No office, no store.
Did we get back on the main road? No. Enough of that. We took a back loop to De Soto where there actually was a convenience store. Also a bunch of not-young guys sitting out in front chatting away. One of them had a dog, probably a pit bull, that seemed to think I was exactly the friend he had always wanted in spite of my bicycle helmet (most dogs really don't like helmets or hats). So I petted the dog, and his guy started to chat with me. He asked all the questions about where we were riding. I asked if the bike next to him was his. Yup. He just rode it all over town. Did he think De Soto was bicycle friendly? He asked his buddies, and turned back and said yeah, he guessed. Except for his neighbor. "He's tried ta run me down a couple times. We don't git along."
I asked about good ways to get to Carbondale from there. One of the guys said he'd walked along the railroad tracks that way. Paved? Nah. Maybe just the main road, but not much shoulder.
Bruce came out and told me the young clerk had suggested a route that took us a couple of extra miles but was pleasant and traffic free and paved. We did it. And only one brief half mile or so was gravel. When we got into town, we discovered this is much more of a city than we had anticipated. The road became bigger and busier. We turned on Main Street as directed and soon encountered construction that did not have a shoulder and did not have an extra inch of room in the two lanes in our direction occupied by a fairly steady stream of fast traffic. We inched our way back to the nearest intersection and reconsidered. New route. It took us to a road with an actual bike lane - phew - that even curved into the next road but vanished as soon as we had committed to that direction. This was a narrow two lane road with no sidewalks, no extra room at the edges, and some fairly fast traffic. But we sped up and got through it. No one honked, a few had to wait a bit to pass us, but they were all very nice. The next turn - sidewalk. A busy road with spacious lanes but no actual shoulder or bike lane. We were not in a place where people usually walk, so the sidewalk worked just fine, and brought us right to the driveway of our hotel. About 61 miles when all was said and done.
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 very few reports from there. I think the area is mostly used for hunting and fishing. Neither bird was rare or hard to identify, and neither one was a life bird for me. Still, it's sort of fun to make a report like that.
We went on, and for a while, all was well. We were headed for the nearest gas station/convenience store. I didn't have a whole lot of water - enough to get by, and it was not a hot day - but I thought it would be nice to find some more. We took one of the suggested routes, and found ourselves back in adventureland. I stopped for a small bite to eat, and when I bent over to pick up my Camelbak, my bike tipped over. I was still straddling it. Oops. And it somehow managed to wedge my knee between the front wheel and the frame. Ouch. But Bruce pulled it up, I had only minor bumps, and we went on our way.
The next turn Google offered was a Bad Road. Not just unpaved, aggressively unpaved. Lots of loose dirt and big rocks. Plus a sign referring to coal. I think it must have been a truck entranced to some sort of mining facility. Way to go, Google.
Next road was actually very nice, and took us to the main road a few miles north of the gas station. Only on the main road we soon encountered road construction. Pavement cat-scratched all over, shoulder a bit better but with lots of debris, and signs announcing a one lane, one way road in our future. Fortunately, the one way part still had a shoulder, because it was fairly long and we would have been pretty unpopular if the other direction had to wait for us to get through.
At the end of that section was our gas station. A few gas pumps under an awning. No office, no store.
Did we get back on the main road? No. Enough of that. We took a back loop to De Soto where there actually was a convenience store. Also a bunch of not-young guys sitting out in front chatting away. One of them had a dog, probably a pit bull, that seemed to think I was exactly the friend he had always wanted in spite of my bicycle helmet (most dogs really don't like helmets or hats). So I petted the dog, and his guy started to chat with me. He asked all the questions about where we were riding. I asked if the bike next to him was his. Yup. He just rode it all over town. Did he think De Soto was bicycle friendly? He asked his buddies, and turned back and said yeah, he guessed. Except for his neighbor. "He's tried ta run me down a couple times. We don't git along."
I asked about good ways to get to Carbondale from there. One of the guys said he'd walked along the railroad tracks that way. Paved? Nah. Maybe just the main road, but not much shoulder.
Bruce came out and told me the young clerk had suggested a route that took us a couple of extra miles but was pleasant and traffic free and paved. We did it. And only one brief half mile or so was gravel. When we got into town, we discovered this is much more of a city than we had anticipated. The road became bigger and busier. We turned on Main Street as directed and soon encountered construction that did not have a shoulder and did not have an extra inch of room in the two lanes in our direction occupied by a fairly steady stream of fast traffic. We inched our way back to the nearest intersection and reconsidered. New route. It took us to a road with an actual bike lane - phew - that even curved into the next road but vanished as soon as we had committed to that direction. This was a narrow two lane road with no sidewalks, no extra room at the edges, and some fairly fast traffic. But we sped up and got through it. No one honked, a few had to wait a bit to pass us, but they were all very nice. The next turn - sidewalk. A busy road with spacious lanes but no actual shoulder or bike lane. We were not in a place where people usually walk, so the sidewalk worked just fine, and brought us right to the driveway of our hotel. About 61 miles when all was said and done.
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