Today (Day 2) was a day of driving across South Dakota. What do you see when driving across South Dakota? Billboards, lots and lots of billboards. Wall Drug, of course. But lots of others too, apparently the Firehouse Brewery is trying to be the new Wall Drug. They have signs and bright red fire trucks every few miles. Here are a few of our favorite slogans.

Mexican food so good that Donald Trump would build a wall around it!

I don’t even remember if the name of the restaurant was mentioned. But I would love to eat there to support the owners.

There is wisdom in wine.

There is bacteria in water

Love it, let’s have a glass of wine to celebrate the author of that sign.

I have to say that South Dakota is not a good value; it is pretty expensive scenery at almost $1.00 per mile! The reason that today was particularly expensive was the headwind. We were driving straight into a 20 mph wind gusting to 40 mph at times. Our gas mileage is normally 9-10 mph while pulling our camper, but today we were averaging 5.3. Yikes! I was beginning to think that today was our day for mechanical troubles until we stopped to fill up. I could hardly push the door open against the wind. Although relieved to understand why we were getting such poor mileage, Knutson’s van performed perfectly and with a diesel engine they were only using about a quarter of a tank to our 25 gallon fills.

We made it to the Badlands in the late morning and took the scenic drive through. The last time I was on this road, I was on my bike, so it was a different experience to see it from the truck.

The Badlands are so interesting with millions of years of geologic history on display. They have a map that shows what things looked like all those years ago and clearly this part of the world was under water.

After we got through the Badlands our final 100 miles for the day brought us to Custer State Park. I think it must be one of the most beautiful state parks in the country. Our camp sight was beautiful, if a little small to back into. We set up camp at the Sylvan Lake campground and after a round of beers in the shade we headed out for the short hike around the lake.

Dinner was wonderful, we had some delicious french dip foil sandwiches. Holly had made them with cheese and roast beef and then wrapped them in foil, we put them over the fire and they came out perfectly. Meanwhile we took on the task of trying to figure out the problem with the gas supply to the grill and griddle. By process of elimination we determined that it was the quick connect coupler on the camper that had to be clogged. The protective cover had either come off or we had forgotten to put it on, so it wasn’t too surprising that road grime was interfering with the flow. We took it off and washed it good with soapy water. That cleared it all up and so we are back in business to cook with gas. However we are having fun improvising our cooking over the open camp fire.

Unsurprisingly holly and Brian had not slept very well their first night in their van, so we called it a night relatively early.

Every five-ish years we have a special trip with our good friends Brian and Holly. We were all married on the same weekend in June, but one year apart. Brian was my college roommate and my best man. So to celebrate our five year anniversaries we do a trip together. We have been to Door County, Hawaii, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, you get the idea. Every time we go it is an adventure.

This year is our 36th anniversary and their 35th. A few years ago we rented a 32 foot RV and visited Banff and Glacier. This year, we decided to keep the national park theme going and are heading to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Since we have a travel trailer, Brian and Holly decided to rent a camper van and we would drive and camp together.

We were about an hour down the road when we got the following text from Holly.

So we pulled off in Saint James and parked behind the Caseys. After turning off the van and restarting the engine everything seemed fine. So we continued on down the road. We got all the way to Heron Lake when it happened again. So we pulled into the Conoco station and they called their rental company. Once again restarting the van fixed the problem. After the third time we decided to pull over in Worthington and get some help from the rental company. The first thing we learned was that the roadside assistance provided with the rental was completely useless. They said they found one place that could help us, in the little town of Lismore, that could get us in on Wednesday! Discussions ensued with the owner of the RV who seemed pretty knowledgeable and correctly diagnosed what the problem was. Meanwhile the rental company got busy trying to locate an alternative RV to bring to us. The RV was in “limp mode”. When the RPMs exceed 2700 the turbo is not able to keep up and goes into a mode where you cannot accelerate.

At the owners suggestion we continued toward Sioux Falls, with a stop for gas in Luverne where gas was just $4.09. While we were in town we made a quick stop at Papik motors where we were able to get the error code read, which confirmed the diagnosis. A little further down the road we got word that we should head to Chris’s Auto Repair in Sioux Falls. If you ever need some work done on your car in Sioux Falls I would highly recommend, they are the nicest group you will find. They did some more diagnostic work to figure out exactly what needed to be replaced. Unfortunately they couldn’t get the part until Wednesday, so the owner dispatched his mechanic to make the four hour drive to Sioux Falls with the part. We now knew that we were not going camp in the badlands, so we found a couple of sites at the very nice Lake Vermillion recreation area.

While waiting for the mechanic, we had happy hour and made some burgers. We were planning on grilling, but for some reason could not get the grill to light! Another mystery to figure out when we get settled in Custer. The induction burner and frying pan worked out just fine, so we had our burgers and enjoyed the views of the lake.

At around 9:00 the mechanic arrived, well it was actually not the mechanic but someone’s teenage son. Whatever! He got the job done and the RV has been running like a champ all day today.

Unfortunately our lottery attempts were a bust and neither of us got selected. So we did the next best thing and hiked Wire Pass. Getting to Wire Pass is about half the adventure as it is 7.9 miles off the highway on a very bumpy dirt and gravel road. Jane loves driving the truck in these off-road conditions, I just grit my teeth until we are there.

It turns out that the trailhead for Wire Canyon is also the trailhead for the Wave (also known as North Coyote Canyon.) We thought about just following the trail to the wave, but decided that if there were rangers checking passes that it probably was not worth it.

In the end Wire Canyon was great, lots of slot canyons to walk through and just a huge wall at the end. Not only the wall, but there are ancient Petroglyphs carved into the wall.

After eating out every night so far on this little camping trip we finally made dinner at the camper. Jerry found enough left over firewood to make a little fire and we cooked our curried pork satays over an open flame.

Houseboat by sheer cliffs

private beach with no neighbors

billions of bright stars

After piloting a 50 foot houseboat for an afternoon, I think I’m ready to give cruise ships a try! It’s probably not that much different…

We arrived at the rental office and looked down, down, down the hill past where the water levels have been for decades down to the lowest point since the 1960’s. At the various marinas the self serve boat landings end 50 feet above the water level! That is gonna be a long way to schlep all this stuff was the common sentiment among our group.

Luckily the checkin process went much better than we were expecting, and after our orientation on the boat our person had a gator with two wagons attached to ride up the hill and fetch all of our stuff! The houseboat itself is a wonder, and much nicer than we were anticipating! There are lots of little details to remember about running the generator to charge the batteries, what things run on AC power and what things run on batteries with the inverter. For the most part you don’t really have to worry too much. We have just started the generator at the times we want to cook and while we are cooking the batteries get recharged. Plus there is a nice gas grill on the top deck for cooking as well.

Once we had everything stowed we were ready to get under way. They give you surprisingly little training for driving a giant boat, but one of the guides kindly accompanied us out of the harbor, watch over my shoulder and sharing a few tips for steering. The bottom line is that you don’t turn a houseboat on a dime, you need to anticipate and not oversteer.

Next stop was the Wahweap Marina, below the lodge, for some reason the kayak rental place we used cannot deliver to the boat rental place. So I already had to figure out how to go and dock this big thing. The pilot helping me out seemed very skeptical about the whole idea. “Maybe they can just bring the kayaks to you in a boat?” Despite his lack of faith I did find a place to dock and we got the Kayaks loaded and headed on our way. The general consensus was that Navajo Canyon was our best bet for finding a place to beach the houseboat. So off we went!

Part of the way back into Navajo canyon we found a magnificent spot! It was clearly a spot recently used as the holes for the anchors were already dug in all the right spots for us. So yay! That saved us a bunch of work. We may stay here until we have to leave on Sunday. We are truly disconnected here, no cell service at all, no WiFi or anything. Hopefully all is well in the world!

Ann and Jane did a little exploring in some nearby coves!

After a dinner of Peruvian Chicken we taught Ann and Jerry to play a new game. Before retiring for the night we all went on the top deck and lay face up on the mats — STARS — a clear sky and no light pollution makes for a spectacular view.

Today was mostly just getting from Zion over to Page Arizona. We had to take the camper through the tunnel, which was interesting because they make the tunnel one way traffic whenever there is a camper or bus that needs to go through. The road is just a little too narrow for comfort and although two campers could probably pass each other many mirrors would be broken. From there we went through Kanab and then onward toward Page Arizona.

About 20 miles outside of Kanab we came to a sudden stop. There was a huge lineup of cars on our side of the road and no oncoming traffic except for the few cars we could see turning around. With no cell service it was a total mystery as to what had transpired ahead. We assumed it was an accident of some kind. But how long would we have to wait? After sitting some time the paramedics from Kanab came by heading toward the accident, so we knew it would be quite a while. Jerry and I decided to take a little hike up the road to see if we could find any information or even just to see if we could see the start of the backup. After walking about a mile we started chatting with another person who said that there had been a lot of smoke and the word was that a camper had tipped over and caught fire. Rescue crews were looking for volunteer vehicles to help clear the road. But nobody knew how long it would be before we could get underway.

We met people with timed reservations at Antelope canyon, and others on their way to Lake Powell every car on our walk back wanted to know if we had learned anything. We we tried to tell what we knew in ever decreasing detail. A few minutes after getting back to the car we could see the front of the line start to move. It was just about 1 hour delay. Luckily we were not on any time schedule. We could clearly see the problem when we got to the front! We hope everyone survived! This really made us think about the dangers of driving in remote areas, no cell service in this area? We can only imagine how long that RV burned before word got to the authorities and someone was able to respond 20 miles from the nearest town!

The other unfortunate thing about the day was that the wind was just howling 20 mph with gusts of much more. At our campsite we could hardly close our door with both hands! Needless to say we were not going to sit around in the camper in the wind, so we headed down to see horseshoe bend. It takes a bit to walk down to the viewpoint and on the way there we had convinced ourselves that the wind was letting up a bit. But when we got to the edge of the canyon overlooking the bend we were sand blasted! You could hardly stand it with the bits of sand and gravel whipping around and stinging your skin.

So maybe outdoor hiking is not a good idea today either. Maybe we should go into page to the brewery and distillery? That turned out to be a great call. Good beer, decent pizza and some really nice gin — made with botanicals. Yes, I am on vacation I had gin and beer.

Back at the camper the wind had calmed down so we settled in for a rousing game of “Mexican Train” dominoes. It was a game full of twists and turns, just when we thought we had it figured out Jane staged a dramatic last minute victory.

Suddenly floating

Down the river goes my wife

Someone grab her hat!

It was a beautiful morning in Zion National Park, we were up early to get to the outfitters to rent our waders/dry suits for the hike in the Zion Narrows. This is a hike we have wanted to do since 2009 when we brought the kids with us to Zion. It was worth the wait and is definitely in my top 10 list of hikes.

The water temperature was 56 degrees and the river was flowing at 46 cubic feet per minute. So it was not too high, but it was rapid enough that a lot of the time we really needed our poles to stabilize ourselves. I was under the impression that the entire hike was in the river. Thank God it was not. A lot of the hike involves zig zagging back and forth to get to dry land to walk on a trail for a short distance before going to the other side to do the same.

I felt like an explorer as you could not see very far ahead, so at every turn there was another turn just up ahead and you never knew what was coming up next.

Our goal was to make it to the split and then walk a little further upstream to “Wall Street” where things get even more narrow. Which we did, we also explored a path to a waterfall. But that was not too productive, as there was a mini waterfall and boulder in our way. So we headed back.

When we arrived at the deepest crossing that also had a very strong current that was when things went awry. I was walking just ahead of Jane when I saw her start to float by! She had stumbled and done a slow fall into the deeper water. I was able to grab on to her and get her upright but not before a bunch of very cold water had gone over the top of her dry suit bibs! Her hat started to float downstream but luckily some nice young person was there to stop it. When we got out of the water on the other bank we looked back to find that Ann had stumbled in the water as well.

The dry suit did an excellent job of keeping out the water for most of the trip, and now it was doing an equally good job of keeping the water in! Which meant that every time jane got into a little deeper water the pressure on the suit forced the cold water inside the suit to squeeze up! Not comfortable. At this point our hike became a march to get back to the trailhead as quickly as we could to get the women out of their wet clothes. Unfortunately Ann fell one more time in the water and then took a tumble on some rocks on the land and bruised her elbow and banged up her knee.

Despite it all we still enjoyed some awesome scenery along the way. When we arrived at the trailhead it was quite a process to remove all of our wet gear. I pulled open the cuff on Jane’s dry suit and a gallon of water came pouring out. We still had a one mile hike to get back to the busses which was just about enough time for their wet clothes to dry out.

We were all amazed and surprised at the casual nature of the outfitters in town. Here is some stuff, try it on and let me know if you need a different size. Signing the waiver of liability was totally on the honor system, and paying seemed to be an honor system thing as well. How they knew what we had taken or paid for, or even returned is a mystery. I guess a dry suit is not something you are likely to steal, but it felt nice and refreshing to not have to sign and number and carefully check in and out each piece of gear!

This is a hike we would definitely repeat with our family if we ever get back here again.

We arrived safely back at our campsite where we packed up some drinks and our swimsuits and headed to the east side of the park. We needed to get inside the geofence area to get in the daily lottery for a chance to hike the Wave. They only allow 64 people a day into the Wave so it takes some luck. After driving even further than we wanted to we finally got enough cell signal to enter. It was kind of funny with four of us and four different generations of iPhones each with different signal strength trying to get the recreation.gov app to work with only a single bar of LTE signal!

After finally succeeding in getting two of us in the lottery we gave up and headed over to Ann and Jerry’s hotel to use the hot tub! That felt great. Jerry offered to buy us all dinner if we could go to a sports bar where he could attempt to turn us into Phoenix Suns fans.

After some city time we were excited to get back to nature. Its hard to believe that we only have six days left before we arrive in Indio. Living in the camper has somehow become our “new normal”.

We are back in desert country so our campsite didn’t have many trees, but it did have a great view of the sky and the horizon. We did a pretty long hike along the canyon rim where we were able to see the Rio Grande river and look across into Mexico. The hike was just over seven and a half miles so our feet were tired by the time we got back from this hot dusty walk.

Since this was our last opportunity to have a campfire and cook over an open flame we made the most of it and enjoyed some time under the stars. I played around with my new phone features and got a couple of nice nighttime shots.

In the morning you can see that we had a beautiful sunrise!

I was looking down at my phone or something inside the car when we made the transition. I looked up and saw this sight!

It looked like we had suddenly been transported to Wisconsin in the middle of January! Instead we were at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. Not far from the Missile Range and the test site for the Manhattan Project.

We did some messing around on the dunes, enjoying the beautiful contrast between the white sand and the clear blue sky!

From White Sands we went back to our campsite at Leasburg Dam and hooked up to head further west. We had opted for a KOA in Wilcox AZ for the night so we could have all our tanks clean and empty for the final drive to Indio.

Little did we know that Wilcox is some kind of wine Mecca for the state of Arizona. Who ever heard of an Arizona wine anyway? We had to give them a try so after making camp and doing a little work with the good WiFi. We headed to the Coronado Winery to test a few wines and enjoy some of their food. The wine was actually really good, I ended up buying a bottle of their Rose to take with me and Jane bought a bottle of the Sangiovese.

Its been an incredible trip and all we have left is about six hours of driving on I-10 tomorrow! Depending on how early we get on the road we will be in Indio by early to mid-afternoon. Lots to look forward to there, and looking forward to reconnecting with all of our Indio friends, golfing partners and pickleball players!

After a beautiful night at Seminole Canyon, we were on our way to Big Bend National Park. This is a good time to see this park as Big Bend is definitely not on the way to anywhere. The park is huge, and very remote. It borders the Rio Grande and has some spectacular hiking.

Getting into our “pull through” site was our first adventure. It was on the wrong side of the road for our camper so first we had to drive down the road the wrong way. The site is on a hill and half of the site is very sloped so we had to pull up to the level area and leave the pickup blocking the road until we were leveled and unhooked. Thankfully the rangers around here are very friendly and understanding. One even told us that he would block traffic for us when we left if he was around to make it easy for us to go the wrong way. I love a friendly rule breaker!

After some sandwiches for lunch I worked a bit and read with the idea that we would do the hike to the Window sometime after 4:00. This turned out to be a great decision as we ended up in shade for most of the hike and on the way back we had just beautiful light on the mountains. This hike was downhill from the start and uphill all the way back!

This was the end of the hike where we could see the plains below the window from our valley!

On the way back we had several opportunities to enjoy the beautiful lighting! This one is my favorite, I really love the reflection of the mountains beyond in this tiny pool.

I also loved the contrast in the lighting, from the shadow we were walking in to the canyon walls still in bright, late afternoon sunlight!

We didn’t get back from the hike until after 7:00 so after a drink and a bit of rest it was dark by the time I started the griddle for supper. We had decided on fried burgers. I haven’t made a burger on a flat top in forever, but let me tell you, it was great! Nicely browned on the outside and we toasted some buttered buns right next to the burgers! It took me right back to my childhood having burgers at the Cafe in Storden Minnesota with my grandma Sundahl.

This morning we were up and waiting for the sun to clear the canyon wall so we could position the solar panels for the day before we took off on our sightseeing tour. It was great.

We followed the Ross Maxwell road (an early park super) and it was beautiful! The highlight of the trip was the view of “the notch” No! not the one on the iPhone or the new macbook pro, but a gigantic notch between the mountains carved out by the Rio Grande! This was our first view of it from about 10 miles away!

When we got closer it was great to get out and walk into the canyon. The drought is so bad that the Rio Grande is very low .

So low, in fact, that we were definitely in Mexico for a few minutes!

We pulled out of the campground in the dark. The first time I can remember us breaking camp in the dark. It was not that early it is just that the Fall schedule of the sun is getting later and later. The weather forecast for New Orleans called for stormy weather later in the day and checking the radar as we left town confirmed that we were in for a day of driving in some nasty weather. A huge line of thunderstorms was just moving through San Antonio and Houston and slowly moving its way east.

We actually had to pull over in Beaumont at a rest stop to wait out the worst of the weather. Parked between a huge fifth-wheel camper and a big 18-wheeler we were pretty sheltered from the wind. So we ate an early lunch, checked our mail and watched the rain pound the windshield. With the worst of the storm past us we still drove through heavy rain until just outside of Houston. At which point the wind really picked up and was gusting to 36 mph. That made the drive from Houston to San Antonio pretty difficult.

By the time we got to the RV park it was after 5:00 so we had been on the road for 11 hours and were ready to just relax and have a drink. We cooked some steaks and topped them with left over warmed up crab sauce from Galatoires. Quite good.

Thursday morning we had a leisurely breakfast and then took off on our bikes for a nice little ride on the Saldado greenway that runs right by the KOA. Our neighbor warned us that the trail was flooded in several areas, but speculated that it might be dried out by now. He was correct except for a couple of slippery muddy areas.

After showering and finishing off some left over pizza for lunch we headed to downtown San Antonio to visit the Alamo and find a good dinner spot on the Riverwalk. The Alamo took a lot less time that we expected and the Riverwalk was pretty quiet. Lots of volunteers were working to set up chairs for the river parade to celebrate the “Day of the Dead”. Unfortunately that parade is for Saturday night so we did not get to see it but I bet it would be pretty cool.

We ended up at the Iron Cactus for a very early of mexican food and Margaritas. It was good, but not great. I had some chicken enchiladas verde and jane had fish tacos. We thought about having a campfire when we got back to the camper, but the wind was still very strong so we decided to hold off on that and play some games in the camper instead.

We arrived in New Orleans on Sunday, not the best day to visit restaurants, but we were able to make it work for us.

• Sunday Night Galatoires on Bourbon Street
• Monday Midday food tour of the French Quarter
• Tuesday Night Commanders Palace in the Garden District

That is quite a lineup! Both Galatoires and Commanders Palace required coats for men, so I had to bring a sport coat all the way down the river just for these two nights. It was definitely worth it. Also, New Orleans requires proof of vaccination to even enter a restaurant or bar! Good for them

We started with a pre-dinner drink at the Absinthe Bar, where we happened to sit next to two women from LaCrosse Wisconsin! I had never had an Absinthe drink before, but it was a real treat. If you don’t know, Absinthe tastes a lot like black licorice.

Galatoires is an old school restaurant, white and black tile on the floor, mirrors on the walls, servers dressed in black suits. Very nice. We started with a potato souffle, which was very thin slices of potato that were somehow fried and puffed in the middle, served with a nice aioli. We were advised to eat them quickly, before they deflated and we had no trouble following that advice. We followed that up with a bowl of gumbo that was spicy and brown and very delicious with chunks of shrimp and sausage.

For our main course I had been waiting to try some New Orleans Shrimp Etouffee, which did not disappoint. Everything starts with the Roux and I’m on a new mission to make a nice dark brown Roux. Jane had a combo meal of a very rich crab dish Crab Ravigote - think crab dip - and Shrimp au Vin. It was so good but we brought most of the crab dish home with us. (something to top our steaks with tonight!)

Monday we had a fun food tour, it was a nice small tour group. The other six all knew each other and were from Washington state. They had just finished a seven day river cruise from Memphis to New Orleans. I’m not sure why you would do a food tour of New Orleans if you didn’t want to try shrimp gumbo but whatever. They enjoyed their red beans and rice instead. On the tour we tasted the following:

• seafood sausages - shrimp, crawfish, cheese and rice in a casing. The inside tasted great, but the casings were kind of distracting as they didn’t want to break so the sausage just kind of squirted out.
• Shrimp Gumbo — did you know that the word Gumbo originated in Africa and is the word for Ochre?
• Jambalaya
• Fried Alligator bites with Muffaletta Sandwich
• Wood Fired Oysters with parmesan and butter! This is the way to have Oysters!
• Pralines for desert!

Our guide, Jack, was very knowledgeable and did a great job of mixing in the history of the French Quarter with food talk.

Tuesday evening, we had dinner at Commanders Palace — a fitting meal to celebrate the end of the ride! We headed into the Garden District with plenty of time to check out the architecture as well as a few of the bars. We actually ended up having a little taco appetizer at The Rum House. Commanders palace is one of the oldest restaurants in the country and has had many famous chefs including Paul Prudhomme and Emeril LeGasse. The food was delicious once again. We had to have more Gumbo but for my Entree I had to go for the pork chop served over polenta. Jane had the pecan crusted fish — a Paul Prudhomme creation. For desert we even had to try the bread pudding which was quite delicious.

Yesterday was the official end of my Mississippi River ride. I rode way out on the delta to Venice, or the southernmost strip of land in the state of Louisiana. A few parts of the ride were scenic but a lot of it was still just along the highway. Thankfully the traffic heading out that direction is pretty light, so even though it was a four lane road I could have one lane to myself.

I got off to a bit of a rocky start as I thought I was just going to follow the highway, but a mile into the ride I checked the map only to discover I was off track. So I did a U-turn and headed back to my missed turn onto a nice side road. After a mile or so on the side road I could see a bridge ahead and the dreaded orange highway signs. The bridge was out! My only option was to go back to the highway I had left and continue as I thought! The highway bridge

Miles later, and just a couple miles short of the end I could see our pickup sitting beside the road. Jane was waiting for me to give me the news that the road ahead was under water. Not deep, but definitely not bikeable.

So we put my bike in the bed of the pickup, and fittingly drove the last two miles to the southernmost point in Louisiana where I did pose for my final photo op.

To recap, Jane and I covered 2,550 miles from the headwaters of the Mississippi at Lake Itasca to this pretty un-flashy finish line. I didn’t ride every mile of that but I rode the majority of it for sure. I learned a lot about the limitations of my body and the day after day grind of riding a long distance.

The drive back to our campground outside of New Orleans was pretty uneventful. We had to take a ferry across the river at the cost of $1.00. It runs every 30 minutes and appears to take about a dozen cars each trip. Definitely not a money maker when you consider the crew of three!

We really enjoyed looking at all of the large houses up on stilts! We even saw two entire high school buildings built on stilts! Very new, so we were guessing these schools were built with money from FEMA after Katrina. Here is a nice example of one of the fine houses we saw.

As I write this we are about an hour away from our campground in San Antonio! We have covered more miles today than we would do in a week while I was biking! We left early this morning under the cover of darkness and its been quite a trip. The severe weather that is affecting the entire country made no exception for our day of travel. We had to pull over to a rest stop outside of Beaumont Texas to wait out a severe thunderstorm. It was an early lunch but it worked nicely to park in between an 18 wheeler and a fifth-wheel camper.

We enjoyed 3 fun nights in New Orleans which I will cover in a separate post! We have about a week of travel left before we arrive in Indio with more adventures yet to come. We are looking forward to a visit to the Alamo tomorrow and some of the great national parks in the state of Texas.

After days of really flat, really boring, riding / non-riding today was a welcome breath of fresh air. The Natchez trace is a really nice ride! Its a two lane road with a 50 mph speed limit and very few cars.

The trace dates back to prehistoric times when bison followed the same path from the river to the Nashville area. Later native Americans and others would “trace” the same path. Natchez is the oldest western settlement on the Mississippi river dating back to 1746.

Today Jane and I did the ride as a relay. She dropped me off and I rode for 28 miles, testing my lower back which seemed to survive the ride quite well. Meanwhile, Jane hiked a bit and then drove on ahead of me and parked the truck and camper so it would be waiting for me. Then she took off on her bike heading towards Natchez, a little more than 33 miles. I drove the camper to our camp site and got everything set up for the night.

The day did not start well as we had a nail in one of our camper tires so the pressure was way down, and my removal of said nail did not make the situation any better. We slowly made our way to a Vicksburg tire shop about 5 miles from our campground. The place was a pretty low budget place, with no big bays or fancy equipment, but where the most friendly guy helped us out! I went inside — no counter, no receptionist — and waited next to a guy remounting a tire on a rim. When our tech noticed me he asked how he could help and I told him of our trouble. He followed me out and had us pull the trailer a bit further forward. He grabbed a jack and a “bacon strip” patch kit and his compressor hose. Less than 10 minutes later he was done. The charges were a shockingly low $10.00! I only had a 20 dollar bill and he didn’t have any change so we agreed to call it good at $20 and we were on our way. I was so elated that we didn’t have to sit around for hours waiting to get something done that it seemed like a bargain!

The “bacon strip” kit is a larger version of what I use for my fat tire bike. So now we are wondering if we can buy our own larger version for the camper as well.

After getting showered at our campsite we both realized that we hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, so we headed into town to the Natchez Brewery for a beer and some very good pizza. I’m suspecting it will be an early night.

Due to my back pain I rode with Jane today from the Mississippi River state park to Lake Chicot state park. I’m not too sad as it was 80 miles of highway riding through flat (and mostly harvested) cotton fields was not so appealing.

After crossing the river into Arkansas we were ready to get to our campground. Google maps wanted us to turn right, so of course we did. The road sign for the state park said to go straight but hey, what do they know. A hundred yards later we were screwed…. We were on the North Levee road with no way to turn around. Think Gravel, dust, and steep grades on both sides of the narrow gravel road.

Crap! 7.2 miles and then we are supposed to turn left onto Audubon Trail. Which then goes to our campsite. What else can we do except take it nice and slow, raise as little dust as possible, and hope that nobody comes from the other direction!

Well, 7.2 miles later we get to our turn for the Audubon trail and that is exactly what it is! A trail! The road goes left but at the bottom of the levee is a gate, chained closed. I hop out to investigate and see if it is locked and what is on the other side of the gate. Well it isn’t locked but the other side of the gate has not seen any traffic in a very very long time. We would be driving in a pasture, with a barely discernible path. 100% something you would never pull a camper on!!

At this point our only option is to curse Google in the most colorful language possible, and try to very carefully turn the camper around by backing into the turnoff. Jane very skillfully backs the camper onto the ramp and then begins to pull to go back the other way. The wheels begin to spin. No way!! stop and go and spin, stop and go and…. the traction catches and we are turned around. Now all we have to do is drive another 7.2 miles back the other way on the same dusty gravel.

By the time we get back to the main road, the truck is beige instead of nearly black. The camper is covered in dust, and neither of us is in a very good mood. We follow the signs toward the state park and I thoughtfully suggest deleting the Google maps application from Jane’s phone. This way is about 17 miles longer than Google’s way but it is much better and we arrive safely. The ranger gives me a knowing chuckle when I suggest that maybe the park should have a notice to ignore Google maps when trying to get to the campground. We are not the first! Nor will we be the last I suspect.

We will follow the instructions to try to get Google to make a correction.

In the meantime for the search engine side of google here are some key words that may help the next unsuspecting traveller.

Arkansas Chicot State Park, directions, Audubon trail, north levee road, ignore google!! Audubon trail is NOT a road!!

My back felt better this morning, and with 52 miles on the schedule it felt very doable. Especially with all my new ointments to soothe my muscles and keep my rear end happy.

The challenge for the day was that in addition to riding, and needing to move to the next campground, I was also supposed to participate in the Concordia College October board meeting. What to do? Most of the morning was scheduled as committee meetings and the student learning committee had no important votes to make today, so I decided I would ride during that meeting and attempt to participate via zoom as I rode. It mostly worked fine! I was able to listen to 90% of the meeting as I had at least two bars of Verizon LTE for the majority of the ride!

The only part I could not participate in was during opening introductions when I happened to be down in a very pretty valley — I guess they call them hollers down here in Kentucky? In any case I didn’t have service for a while.

I’m going to claim that this is the first time ever that a Concordia regent has participated in a board meeting, virtually, while riding 52 miles.

Tonight we are camped out at Reel Foot Lake State Park. We have a beautiful spot right on the lake.

Getting into this spot was quite the trick! First we had to back down a lane and then make a sharp turn around a tree, while avoiding another tree with the pickup! Thankfully I married a pro backer upper, and with my expert hand signals 👉👈 we were settled in no time!

A relatively early arrival allowed me to participate in the afternoon session from the comfort of our couch, and thankfully we have a good signal at this campground!

Today was another 50 mile day, but thankfully the weather was 180 degrees from yesterday. Cool, sunny, and with a very light breeze that was almost behind me. I even saw my first dead armadillo on the side of the road! Oh joy!

After yesterday, which I will always think of as “the ride from hell,” I did a lot of thinking about this journey. I had a lot of time to think as the river was not visible and the scenery was a lot of cropland! One thing that I said to Jane and many others was that we are doing this for fun. If it isn’t fun then why do it? Yesterday was not fun. Enduring 50-70 miles a day on roads where you have to contend with traffic is not fun. Even without traffic which is also the case four to six hours on the bike every day is a pretty lonely experience. There are only so many podcasts to listen to.

According to our guide book for the MRT we are headed into more of the ride that is not very pretty and just miles and miles on roads. The sense of accomplishment at the end of the day is fun, but it all too soon turns into another morning and getting back on the bike. This trip has been hard on my body as well. The ride in the wind really took a toll on my back.

East Saint Louis was NOT fun for Jane either. The RV park was nothing but a giant parking lot behind the Casino. She volunteered to ride across the bridge to a bike shop to pick up some new tubes for our tires and some urrrrmmmm “Chamois Cream” for my developing chafing problem. Brand name “DZNutz” 😂 On the way back from that errand she hit a patch of broken glass and suffered another flat. Thankfully she was close enough to just walk the bike back to the camper. This was a good reminder that this trip is not much of a vacation for her. Hooking up the camper, taking care of the “black water,” filling the fresh water, all the stuff that we normally do together when camping she is having to do alone.

So, all of those things were turning over and over in my mind as I rode and I think it leads to one conclusion. A little less riding and a little more fun. Maybe more hiking, maybe just some shorter rides in areas that are pretty. Maybe just more time together enjoying our campsites and what they have to offer. It doesn’t mean I’m giving up — the killer nagging feeling in the back of my mind. Lets just say I am reprioritizing the activities of the trip!

Jane met me with the camper a several miles short of the camp site for the night and we rode those last miles together. We talked about my thoughts from the day, and considered skipping the campground for tonight and moving on to the next so that we could have a couple of nights in the same place. Luckily we decided that we should at least drive through the campground and see what it was like. Luckily we did! Our campground was a real find! Called Fort Kaskaskia, the campground was first come first served. Other than a few campers that were obviously there for the season we had our pick of sites. After getting camp set up we walked back to the main picnic shelter where we had a spectacular view of the mississippi.

This area has a very interesting history. The mississippi changed directions here at one point putting part of Illinois to the west of the river. It was also the site of a revolutionary war battle! Yes revolutionary not civil, I never knew there were revolutionary war battles fought this far west. We met a nice couple who had lived in the area their whole lives who had just come up to the fort after a doctors appointment to enjoy the view. They enjoyed sharing some of the history of the area with us and it was fun to hear it from them.

This is one of the most beautiful state parks with really nice campsites.

After riding nearly 60 miles today, my back was so sore that I knew my long distance riding days were numbered. The rest of the way will be finding some shorter, more scenic/nicer routes to ride to fulfill the spirit of this trip.

The truth is that riding 100 miles on the edge of a highway through flat farmland lost its appeal. This really is the part of the ride where things get kind of flat and boring. I’m looking forward to that last days ride to the Gulf.

Meanwhile we had a nice campfire and enjoyed a really beautiful night in the park.

Today I saw fields of cotton ready for harvest for the first time in my life. What a sight! Acres of white “flowers” against a backdrop of green.

After breaking camp at lake Reel Foot and riding for a while with Jane I got on my bike for the last 52 miles into our destination of Fort Pillow. Less than 100 yards from starting my ride I was chased by two dogs. Of course this was going to happen as I had just commented to Jane that of all the things so far the last couple of weeks I was glad that I hadn’t had to cope with dogs! These two were just a dramatic foreshadowing of my day to come. Following the MRT took me through lots of pockets of rural houses on very lightly traveled roads. But every house had at least one dog and all of them wanted to greet me in some way. None of them attacked, but when you are on a bike it is never fun to have dogs running beside you or in front of you, you just don’t know what they will do.

In addition to the cotton fields I also saw a lot of Kudzu forests. Kudzu is an invasive plant species introduced from Japan. It can grow a foot a day and loves to cover the native trees giving the forests that have been taken over by the Kudzu quite an interesting look!

Today’s ride was also super hilly! The final few miles up to the campground at Fort Pillow almost did me in! I’m very happy that this should be one of the last hilly rides, the rest of the way to Louisiana should be pretty flat.

I’ve read quite a bit about the civil war but had never heard of a general Pillow. Turns out he didn’t last long and neither did the fort. Less than a year from completion the fort was abandoned by the confederacy. It was a very nice campground, and it was a beautiful Fall night. A good chance to have a campfire and enjoy some well earned steaks after a hard ride!

Tomorrow Jane and I plan to do an easy ride on a bike path on the way to Memphis, then I’m planning to take a couple days off as we rest up and take in a few of the sites in Memphis. Hopefully some BBQ on Beale street is in my future.

From Fort Kaskaskia we drove to the Trail of Tears State Park. This park marks the spot where thousands of Cherokee were driven across the Mississippi river in a forced relocation to reservations in the west. Over ¼ of the Cherokee died on the trip. A shameful part of our past.

The campground here is small and remote, except for the railroad tracks that run right next to the campground and river. For some reason the engineers feel it necessary to blow their whistles in the middle of the night for the tiny trail that crosses the tracks from the campground to the river. Needless to say this was not our best nights sleep.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. We were only about 10 miles from Cape Girardeau a beautiful river town, with murals on the cement flood wall that tell the story of the town. On our way into town we stopped at the Cape Bicycle shop to stock up on some supplies. I had a great chat with one of the guys in the store (owner maybe). He gave me some good riding advice, and some recommendations on where we could get a good pizza and some local brew. Minglewood brewery was the place. We were able to hang out, enjoy some beer, tater-tot nachos, and pizza while watching the US Mens national team. I would recommend both Minglewood and the cycle shop if you are passing through.

After a pretty bad nights sleep, my back was hurting, so I just did a short ride around on the park roads.

Jane had taken off with the truck to do a hike and I had left my helmet in the truck. So I didn’t want to go on the highway and I didn’t want to go far or fast anyway, so a gentle ride to stretch my muscles was all I wanted. Jane’s hike was like a trip through the jungle, she had to use her walking sticks to clear away the spider webs!

One of the things the guys in the bike shop told me, which of course Jane already knew, was not to ride across this bridge!!

Since it was a day to ride in the truck, I did not! Instead we rode together to Columbus Belmont state park. After setting up camp I had just enough signal to participate in the afternoon plenary session of the Concordia board meeting.

Our campground host was very welcoming, and was willing to deliver a nice load of wood for just $5. This was great as we made some pork satays over an open fire along with couscous and chickpeas.

Today started out promising. Like any morning in the camper I made myself some coffee. Unlike most mornings the cell service at Pere Marquette was so bad that the best my devices could muster was a few received emails overnight. Despite Two bars of service digital was just out of the question. Obviously this cell is not designed to handle the volume of traffic at the park. Anything real time was out of the question.

I did pull up the weather and managed to get a frame of radar. Not good! We turned on the TV since we got good TV reception and the weatherman summed it up. Rain this morning, then 30 mph winds for the afternoon with severe weather to follow after noon and late this afternoon. Ugh! So we walked up to the lodge where they had super-fast wifi and confirmed all of this. Yep, lots of rain on the way, then what looked like a break, maybe followed by more rain.

OK, so I’ll work this morning and leave after the rain hopefully finishing before the afternoon showers hit! Great idea. Around 11:00 we saw the sun, so I helped Jane get the camper hooked up, then got my stuff ready and headed out on my bike. The trail, which I had been looking forward to, was a mess! Mud puddles, Mud, downed tree branches, etc. My legs were caked with mud before I had gone 6 miles. The wind out of the SSE was quickly becoming a pain.

When I saw Jane go by on the highway I thought “maybe she’ll stop and I’ll be done for the day.” No such luck, OK, I am going to do this I told myself. It seems that cross country biking is a battle of will! Then I got on the highway where the bike lane was nicer, but the wind was fierce. I continued on for another 15 miles, not making great progress, until I noticed I was no longer on the route. Somewhere the bike path had gone to the right but I had continued following the highway. But just ahead was a turnout where I could get back on the path. I’m not sure I should have as the path was on top of the levee, well above the highway! At times I was riding at a 20 degree angle into the side wind! But I don’t think my day was as challenging as this barge driver! He was trying to get the barges into the lock but clearly heading for the shore due to the high winds!

I seemed to continue along the top of the levee in the wind forever. At the Lewis and Clark memorial I contemplated calling Jane again, but I kept on going. About two miles after the memorial I really regretted my decision as the bike path inexplicably turned to gravel, nice rain softened gravel! That continued for at least two or three miles until I got to the bridge to cross the Mississippi back into Missouri. Getting off the levee and back onto the road was hard as the path was chained shut. I felt very isolated and alone, and it looked like nobody had biked this path for years. Tires, old furniture, all kinds of crap had been thrown off the bridge I was to cross… Yuk!

A few miles later I crossed the beautiful “Chain of Rocks” bridge. Definitely a sight to behold, but by the time I got to the end of the bridge it was pouring. Thankfully there was a covered rest area at the end of the bridge. This time I did call Jane. But she was on her bike headed out to meet me! She is amazing, she was headed out to meet me so I could draft off her on her ebike for the final 10 miles. “I’m almost to the chain of rocks bridge” she said. “OK, its letting up, I’ll meet you” I replied. But I kept riding and riding and no sign of her! So I brought here up on “Find my Friends” Ok I’m getting close but she doesn’t seem to be moving! At that point I got a little nervous, but as I got to the point where here icon was on find my and my blue dot showed me, I could see she was standing. Waiting for me? Nope she had ridden through a pile of glass and had a flat tire! Also no spare tube or tire changing tools. How could I let her ride without a spare!!??

Maybe an Uber was the solution, but I didn’t like the idea of her waiting around for me to get back to her, or her riding in an Uber and me just hanging out for an hour for her to come back. So I tried the first step. Just pump up the tire again. No go! Ok, my tubes are not made for her tires, but they will definitely work in a pinch. So I took off her tire and replaced the tube with my spare. We vowed to carry our bikes over the area with the glass. That was enough to get us back to the RV park at the King Power / Queens casino RV park in St. Louis.

Back in the camper, my back is sore from fighting the wind all day and my attitude is marginal at best. I can’t decide if I want to say I made it halfway down the Mississippi or if I want to continue.

Parts of this ride are great and beautiful, and parts of the trip are just gross.

We will see what tomorrow brings but my bet is on me continuing despite past challenges, and future worries. This feels to me like one of those junior high english class “man against nature” challenges, and in the moment that is exactly what it is! What me give up?! Never! On the other hand I only did this because I thought it would be fun. Today was not fun, today was a whole lotta work. I beat the wind and rain and the elements, but at the end of the day I’m tired and my back hurts, and the Alleve isn’t working, and I’m no fun for Jane to hang out with. So we will see what tomorrow brings!

Stay tuned!

Although today was a “day of rest” we still made a short ride into Grafton for lunch. I’ll ride this same path again tomorrow so this made up for a little of yesterday’s ride in the truck.

As we rode into town I saw this big sign, “Bikers Welcome”

Nice! I thought until we noticed the 100 or so Harleys parked outside. The banner in the back is also advertising “The Hawg Pit”. Needless to say we did not stop there for our lunch. We continued on to the Grafton Brewhouse and Winery where we had some pretty good burgers and decent beer. I think they source some of their grapes from California as I did have a nice chardonnay. Good enough that I bought a bottle.

In case you are looking for a fancy place to stay…

I awoke with heavy legs this morning! The plan was for Jane to drive me back across the river, retracing part of my ride from yesterday. Then, to drop me off so I could ride to the State Park. Sometimes things don’t go quite as planned.

A mile or two into the ride, maybe even less I noticed that I had a flat. Not so bad, I haven’t had any flat tires for quite a while now. So I pulled over to make the change only to discover that I had left my pump in the camper! Thankfully Jane was only a few miles down the road, and I had cell service. She came back with the pump and another tire and a bit later I was changed and on my way.

Less than a mile down the road I was flat again. Grrr… Maybe it was the tired legs, or the heat, or whatever but that was the last straw for me. On the phone again to Jane. “I guess I was not meant to ride today.” So back she came again. As I was waiting I took the whole tire off and once again felt inch by inch to see if I could find something. Finally I found a tiny sharp spine that had somehow worked its way through. I had missed it the first time around but not now. Still, when Jane got back I put the bike on the rack and hopped in the truck.

I sat there stewing and angry about flat tires for quite a few miles before I finally decided that maybe it was time to pull off, fix the tire and ride the rest of the way.

The first part of the abbreviated ride was from Hamberg, which was on some beautiful country roads. Here I am as Jane decided to follow me for a few miles just to be sure.

The second part of the ride was along a pretty busy Illinois Hwy 100. Not so great, but here I am crossing the Illinois river about 15 miles short of Pere Marquette State Park.

We put the Instant Pot to work to make some ribs which we finished over our campfire and some cheesy rice. Tomorrow is scheduled to be a day of rest.

Today was a total washout. I woke up and looked at the forecast and radar only to see a huge patch of rain heading our way. Strangely from east to west. I guess we are in the south now? I just had time to get the bike on the rack and get them covered up before the rain started. So we had a nice breakfast and watched the radar. Clearly an all day thing. I am not into riding all day in the rain so today became a day off. When the rain finally did let up, we did a short hike at Wildcat Den State Park and then drove to Nauvoo.

Here is what it looks like when you are the only camper in the campground!

Nauvoo, home to the grave of Joseph Smith and one really big Mormon temple looked like a pretty sleepy little town as we pulled in. The town turned out to be larger than we thought, but it was still pretty quiet. After setting up camp we took a short walk to the oldest winery in Illinois. We keep trying to convince ourselves that we will find a good wine somewhere along the Mississippi. 🤣

The morning came and the sun was out, a great day to ride to ride. the first part of the day was beautiful, following the river right at river level.

As the day wore on I got further away from the river and more into farmland as well as higher temperatures and a bit of a southern breeze. A different kind of scenery but it was fun to see the harvest in progress.

Heading into Hannibal I rode across the Mississippi on I72 - the only stretch of Interstate in Illinois where bikes are allowed. At this point I was getting pretty tired of riding into the wind and I was low on water, so thankfully I was getting close. After the bridge it was all downhill into Hannibal. Unfortunately our campground was not in downtown, it was outside of Hannibal on the other side of a hill!

One shower and a gallon of water later I was ready to head back into town. We decided, unsurprisingly, on a pizza/pasta place called the brick oven. We were lucky I was ready for an early supper as by the time we left there was a very long waiting list.

Of course when in town you have to stop and help Tom Sawyer whitewash a fence.

On the way back to camp we stopped at Lovers Leap where we had a beautiful view of the river and Hannibal.

I did manage to stay awake until 10, even knowing that I had another 80 miles on the schedule for the next day.

Today I did 86 miles but it was a very relaxing day of riding. The majority of the day was on trails and it was nice to be away from traffic and goats. At one point I was riding right along the top of the levee but most of the time was just through nice rural roads and trails.

I had to make a stop at the local Caseys to buy a couple of bottles of water since I somehow managed to leave the camper with everything but my water bottles. I now have a morning checklist to make sure I don’t forget stuff!

My route today took me through Cordova, where I stopped for lunch and enjoyed the view of the river as well as through East Moline, and Davenport. My one little snag was the bike trail through the parks area of Davenport was closed due to some emergency training drills, so I had to detour on a little busier road.

When I arrived at our destination for the night near Muscatine, Jane was sitting in the parking area. It turns out that checkout time is not until 4:00 and the people occupying our site for the night were going to get every last minute out of their stay. After 4:00 there was still no sign they were leaving, and I was sweaty and grumpy and out of patience so I went over to the sight to politely ask when they planned on moving along. It wasn’t the most pleasant conversation I’ve had, but it did get the job done!

For dinner we had spaghetti and salad. I had not even finished my spaghetti when I had to do a Zoom meeting with a group of students who are working on a project for Runestone for their Senior Capstone. I don’t mind working from the road especially when we have a decent signal. My schedule is a bit unpredictable depending on how far I’m riding and what the weather is, but I seem to be able to keep up with email and do a little development work in my downtime.

After a wonderful weekend in Decorah for our 35 year class reunion, we arrived at Pike’s Peak state park just after dark. This was to be our first time of setting up cam in the dark, but we were not too worried, until we saw a pickup in our spot. Nobody was around and it was just sitting there taking up space. I hopped out of the truck and knocked on the door of the fifth-wheel next door. No answer. Same with the popup on the other side. Grrrr! Suddenly a nice man came quickly down the road. “Sorry, Sorry, I thought this was vacant for tonight and I wanted to recharge a few things. Our spot is not electric!” OK, no problem he moved his truck and we were all good. Time to get a good nights sleep to prepare for the ride.

Yesterday was the start of the final push of this journey. Iowa to the Gulf of Mexico! And what a ride it was, 58 miles with lots and lots of climbing. At times I was cruising along high above the river with great views and other times it was just me and my friends.

Mostly the roads were good and the motorists were all very courteous. I had a good shoulder to ride on most of the time. I could definitely tell that I had not been doing enough climbing as my back was a little sore and my neck muscles were too by the time I finished the ride for the day.

After arriving at the campground in Dubuque Jane was just setting up camp, so I helped finish that task and then did some stretching. We had plans to have dinner with Rachel’s parents (Greg and Peggy Miller) and it turned out to be a wonderful evening. I had some great pasta (Carbs!!) at L May in downtown Dubuque.

This is going to be a great trip. We will see if we settle into a rhythm, but its kind of nice to wake up, have a few hours to work, answer emails, etc. before jumping on the bike again.