Galena, Illinois

The last we posted I was sitting on a curb in Rock Island outside a bike shop waiting for Hap to work on the back wheel. The Hike and Bike shop let Hap use the truing stand. He got it all fixed up and we headed off to buy dinner at Aldi's. We got a Lipton noodle dinner for supper, a can of chicken a can of peas and some pineapple. Our cooking gear consists of two pots, one frying pan, lid, forks, knives spoons, spatula, large spoon for stirring, two bowls, coffee cups and a coffee strainer. We use a whisper lite stove that we have used for many years and it hasn't failed us yet. Our new addition for this trip is the titanium frying pan. We are really going high class now! We left Aldi's and rode around Rock Island looking for the KOA in Milan. Apparently they have this really neat street numbering system. East and west streets are numbered as avenues (3rd ave, 4th ave etc) and the north south are streets (3rd street, fourth street etc). But what we didn't realize was that we were traveling between two cities. The bike shop was in Moline, not Rock Island. So that meant that the numbers we were looking for were in the WRONG city! Guess who's fault that is, as we went roundy roundy the blocks! We finally arrived in Milan and then we had trouble finding the KOA. It would be amusing if we weren't tired, hot and trying to beat yet another storm. The KOA was nice and everything but it sure was expensive. At first the price was $26 then she said oh you didn't make reservations so it is $28! But you get a discount with your KOA card. I almost had to break out my computer to figure it out, good thing I travel with an engineer.

We cooked dinner and the black clouds and thunder started so we hurried to finish, got everything covered and headed to bed. Too bad we couldn't use the hot tub in our $28 campsite!

Sunday was an off day, so we headed off to the Four Square Church in Milan www.thebridge4.org. We had an awesome service. The music was special and the sermon was great. Pastor Matt did a wonderful job. Now we knew why we went to Rock Island instead of Muscatine. By the way while we were talking to someone at church, they mentioned that a tornado had hit Muscatine the day before.........and you wonder who is in charge of this ride???? After church we rode to the Mall to get vitamins at GNC. Just as we got there...yes, you guessed it .....rain and lots of it! So we took the bike in the mall, they really don't mind tandem riding in the mall! Actually we locked it up to the wall and went "shopping". Someone asked me what we "shop" for on a bike ride since we don't have room for anything. FOOD, EATING! We also bought some rechargable batteries and a portable recharger. It was fun watching the rain. I don't think I have ever seen it rain when the sun is shining. We stayed at the mall until it closed at 5pm. We left and rode back to Milan to a chicken fry we had seen the fire dept was having. We decided to buy it and take it back to the KOA so we could beat the rain. Guess what! We were too slow. So we ate at the fire house. As we got back to the campground it started raining again so we grabbed all of our "stuff" and headed to the laundry room. Because someone had the great idea to do laundry before we left and hang it out to dry all day. We spent all evening in the laundry room working on the computer and reading. Of course it was pouring the whole time. It also rained throughout the night but we were nice and dry inside our new tent. Big Agnes (our new sleeping bag) kept us warm also.

Monday we got a late start (as usual). This was partly due to the fact that we had to move everything over to a shelter house to pack because it looked like rain! We left about noon. We discovered a bike trail called the Great River Trail that followed the Mississippi River for 60 miles on the Illinois side up to Savanna, ILL. The trail was great. It was nice being away from traffic. We stopped in Moline at the National City Bank for some $$ and headed north. We were mostly right on the river. It is really a beautiful ride. We stopped for lunch in Huron at a Blimpie's and had a great sub. Have you noticed that food seems to be a common theme?? It was overcast and windy all day. But we didn't get rained on. A new concept for this ride.

We rode into Thomson and camped at Thomson Causeway Recreation area. This is the best place we have camped so far. There were students there from Iowa State doing something. They kept looking at the ground. Finally we couldn't stand it and said what are you doing. They were studying turtles. Apparently this is abig turtle area. Maybe that's why on the trail a turtle crossed in front of us. That was the fastest turtle I ever saw. We also saw some black squirrils that were different. Our camp spot was right on the river. There were lots of birds on the water. It was really pretty. We had a great shower, talked to some interesting people who had a sheltie with them. So of course we spent alot of time talking dogs. We sure miss Katie the wonder dog. If she were here that would make the trip perfect. She would have been keeping a close eye on all of those birds I am sure of that. We had dinner, Lipton noodles again, peas, peaches and cookies.

The ride into Galena today was very windy. The bike trail ended at Savanna, Ill. So we headed north on Rt 84 towards Dubuque Iowa. We thought about crossing the bridge at Savanna into Iowa but once we saw the GRATED bridge we changed our mind. We once ended up WALKING our bike across the Columbia River in Washington/Oregon because it was grated! Do you know how wide that river is? And there was no sidewalk AND it was a two lane bridge with no berm. We had alot of happy drivers behind us....... Anyway, we took a side road to Galena called Black Jack Road. How can I describe this road? Head wind, I saw a sign for 15% grade and also one for a ski area? In Illinois?? But it was nice to be off the main highway on a low traffic road. We actually like the hills because we always bring "granny" with us. For the unbikers reading this. Granny is the really teeny tiny little chainring that makes you able to climb really big hills. So we are always nice to granny and talk to her to make sure she is happy! Galena is a neat little town with lots of history. It would've been nice to explore. But what we needed was a campground. So we stopped at the visitor's center for some directions. We were told there was one just down the road on Rt 20 which was where we were going anyway. What she didn't say was that it was all uphill two lane road, with lots of traffice including trucks and everyone was going home from work. Not a great combination! The campground was just at the top of the hill (of course). We had stopped at the Piggly Wiggly and picked up supper cookins. Steak and salad. At the campground we did laundry, cooked, took showers and we're asleep in .3 seconds. Until next time. We are headed to Guttenberg, Iowa tonight.