2023 GART

illinois, if there's one state that comes closest to being all rails to trails, this is it.  or should i say tow path to trails?  well, both. first, though, several miles of trail heading north along the mississippi, including crossing the river at the dam, the u.s. army's rock island arsenal and the famous railroad, the rock island line. i've been looking forward to the hennepin canal for some time.  it's actually two canal tow paths:  the hennepin, which follows the green river and connects the illinois river to the mississippi and the i&m canal (illinois & michigan) which connects lake michigan to the illinois.  they meet near the town of lasalle.  the latter was the 'big game changer', providing a path from new orleans up to chicago.  the hennepin never affected much because it took too long to build and was obsolete before it opened. but togethe...

sometimes the days are a little less scenery and more drudgery; you just have to ride and get through it.  from marshaltown, the gart does some meandering north to cedar falls, then se down river to cedar rapids. i decided to save a little time and skip some cornfields, so from marsalltown i went straight east to grand rapids.  karen arranged for me to stay with her college buddy from ut days, mollie.  the route was mostly on us 30, mostly 4-lane divided highway, partly under construction.  but first i had some backroads and gravel to ride. then i could enjoy the 4-lane. up and down, hot, dry and windy (head wind, of course).  the only shade being the overpasses. this days' road angels were a construction crew, mostly hispanic, packing up for the day.  i was short on water with no stores in the future.  i stopped and asked if they had any extra water, they loaded me down with about 6 bottles....

iowa has greeted me with storms.  a fine 'how do you do?'. it's been lightning, thundering and raining since just after midnight.  radar shows this lasting till around noon and then more in tonight.  fortunately, i can hold up at my warmshower till the majority of the rain passes, but i'll need to get going sometime.  then i'll have to worry about where to spend the night, no warm shower tonight.  tomorrow's weather looks good, followed by three days of potential rain.  could be a messy week, could be a hotel looming in my future, but i need to try to hold off on that till when really needed. the weather did finally break, and i was back on the road by 11:30.  15 mi north up the valley on the t-bone trail.  overcast skys and lower temps made for a better ride.   rolling into audubon, i was greated by  albert the bull, 'world's largest bull'.  then found a wonderful little cafe, the bakery, on broadway in...