Biketodetroit

We are concerned about complacency. We have had some wonderful comments, especially those of you who did literary research to send us inspirational and amusing works. But we feel that our audience is begining to take for granted our heroic exploits, and that some taudry controversy is needed to spice up our ratings. We have considered a contrived feud, political commentary, and even working in reports of supranatural experiences. Rise up, dear readers; we will be finished before you know it, and you will regret your complacency too late.

We offer this solution: vote for your favorite rider. We can't tell you the outcome. It may be that the rider with the fewest votes is forced out of the ride. It may be that the rider with the most votes gets to leave the ride. You can vote as many times as you like; the only rule is that each vote costs 99 cents. Send a check or money order made payable to "Jeff Shopoff" for however many votes you want to cast. We will take care of the rest.

David continues to post new pictures to Snapfish. Go to www.snapfish.com
Log in as : dsklar46@yahoo.com
Password: biketodetroit

There are now albums for each state.

Our purpose is to let our families and friends know where we are, and to tell some of the story of this trip. We don't usually fabricate things, unless it is important to the moral of the story, or makes it funny. We don't intentionally make mistakes, but we publish under time constraints, and we feel it is an important part of our mission to supply our opinion of the facts rather that delay your receipt of the news by foolish research. We don't make corrections.

The Golden Eagle writes
and having writ moves on...

Friday night at Clinton, Illinois we had one of our special evenings at Ted's Garage, pictured here. In a small town in one of Illinois's least populated counties, Ted Lowers has created a unique restaurant. It is a retro diner/filling station concept, but what makes it special is a menue with high quality ingredients, an excellent staff, and Ted in the front making everyone happy. We know we were in for an unusual evening when our server, Audra, said she might be able to help Bill with a medical problem he was complaining about. When Bill questioned her qualifications, she said she was "a science major, with a minor in surgery." It went downhill from there. The parking lot guy admired my celtic sash, told a story of hiking in Ireland, and stopped by our table to dispense wine advice. Ted completed the evening with a discussion of the history of the place and his philosophy of how to run a great restaurant. We have had far too few of these experiences on this trip, and the gang at Ted's is proof that it can be done well.

We have stopped at the University of Illinois engineering library to use their computers, before pressing on to Danville, near the Indiana border. Yesterday was rainy and cool, but the wind was good and we made 81 miles to Clinton without difficulty.

We all agreed that this was unique; none of us has ever seen a café kitchen swinging door with the ten commandments. The incongruity was that the menu board on the right listed "better than sex cake." We agreed [by a slum majority] that it was not, but it was better than the Ten Commandments Pie.

Please see next entry.

We tried to trick Bill into thinking we had arrived at our destination, but after only 30 minutes in town he figured out it was Detroit, Illinois not Michigan. I argued that we had never actually said what state, only Detroit, but the majority won with the counter-argument that we had to have some integrity, and we have few remaining opportunities.

Don Friedman and Dave Winnett were terribly disapointed when we we changed our route and skipped their little corner of Illinois. In Don's case it was a Quoin. As a consolation to them, we present this fine view of the Illinois River. We waited this [yesterday] morning while this barge passed under the drawbridge, the shadow of which is visible at bottom.

It is a crisp fall day in Illinois with the temperature about 60 and a good north wind. We crossed the Mississippi this [Thurs] morning and now have arrived at Jacksonville.

Bill and Dick Steele as the Mississippi Queen departs Hannibal .

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We reached Hannibal and the Mississippi early this afternoon. We have come 2406 miles in 34 days, averaging 71 miles a day including rest days and 75 on riding days.

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Jeff watches in fear and awe. We are having breakfast in Moberly, MO. Hope to reach the Mississippi at Hanibal today.

Yesterday's picture of the Missouri has more of a story. We were at Stump Island Park. There are three petrified tree stumps there. Turns out Lewis and Clark found them as they started up the river, and named the island. The river has since moved and the stumps are now on the bank.

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Across Kansas this was one of the principal crops we saw. We are still seeing it in Missouri to a lesser extent. Tlocals call it milo. I finally got around to doing a google search today of seed sites, and discovered it is grain sorghum. It looks like a corn plant, but half the height, and has a colorful seed pod you can see in the picture. It is used primarily for cattle fee, and also for production of ethanol. I wonder if there is any crop grown in Kansas for human consumption.

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For the past two days we have been in the thick of the Monarch butterfly migration. Yesterday they were constant all day long. Not dense, but there were always several in view, headed south. Today seems to be the stragglers; fewer, some seemed disabled, and some were not headed south.

We crossed the Missouri at noontoday at Glasgow, MO and had lunch on the river bank on the far side, shown above. We are all very tired; the Missouri hills have been difficult and we have been doing long miles. We all felt a sense of relief and accomplshment at this milestone.

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Dick Steele has joined us with his motor home and has been providing support since mid-Kansas. We are stopped for lunch on a grassy hillside near Bates City, MO. Dick had prepared the lunch for our arrival; bean soup, apples and bananas, rye bread, brie, romain, and assorted juices. We think Dick should have a nice uniform to serve in, but he is too modest.

I have to stop now because Dick is bringing out dessert.

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I am either trying to figure out the menu or the phone.

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We are in Ottowa in far eastern Kansas, about 30 miles from Missouri. Above is the 1890 county courthouse. There was constant traffic this morning, much more than we have had. We figure everyone is going to church and then to breakfast. We have tried to beat the system by stopping at a mexican restaurant for lunch.

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We are in Hope, Kansas this morning, stopped for an early lunch. We have had favorable winds for the last few days, making 90 to 100 miles a day. Yesterday was LaCrosse to Lindsborg. I focused on maintaining a good speed, and finished with an average speed for the day of 19.1 mph, which is much higher than I have ever done, even at half the distance.

Sometime this morning we passed 2000 miles, and we hope to reach Missouri sometime tomorrow.

We saw that the public library was open briefly this morning, so we took the opportunity for this post, as we have not had internet for a couple of days. The barber just came in from next door and told us that we were late in the season, and that we would "freeze our keesters off" by the time we got to Detroit; so we are taking off.

Pueblo appears to be economically depressed, but a lot of effort has gone into the center of town, which is on both sides of the Arkansas River. Below is a view of the library.














This is David racing through downtown Pueblo.















We took it easy for a day, as we only needed to get 65 miles to Ordway, the next place to stay. We stopped in "historic Union Street" in downtown Pueblo for real lattes in real cups.
















We stopped in the afternoon for a root beer float at the cafe in Olney Springs. But we declined the invitation to spend the rest of our lives there.



















Crossing the massive rail yard in Pueblo.

Our typical morning begining, at the San Sophia bed and breakfast in Telluride. A little prickly pear sauce on the fresh melon, and a precious little waffle with creme anglaise on top of the mocha sauce. The juice is simply grapefruit. This was the begining of a wonderful breakfast, followed by massage, rest, sightseeing. (David did the laundry.) We were to pay for this the next day.






A view of the hillside above Telluride (from the laundromat) giving some sense of the changing aspen.