Rock Island, Illinois

Tonight we are in Rock Island, ILL better know as the Quad Cities area. We had to make a slight detour off the route into a town with a bike shop. Our back wheel spokes keep loosening up so Hap is using a truing stand and some lock tight to fix it up. Thought I would take a minute to let you know what has happened since we last posted from Danville, Ill. We left Kickapoo SP on a beautiful HOT (90's +) morning heading mostly north to hook up with the Adventure Cycling northern tier route. We had a great tailwind most of the day, but it sure was HOT. Did I mention that already?? The traffic was light again and the roads very good. I don't think that I have ever seen such straight roads. Now I know where that song came from "I can see forever". We were riding to Watseka, Ill. As we got closer to Watseka we had to turn west so now we had a huge side wind. We were pooped by the time we finally got into town. There weren't any campgrounds so we stayed at a Super 8 motel. We went to the Dollar Store and picked up dinner. Soup and popcorn in the microwave.

The next day we rode into O dell. According to our adventure cycling map you could camp in the city park. We found the park and went to find a store to buy groceries for dinner. We got baked beans, rice and peas. At the park there was a shelter, but the bathrooms were locked and there was no water. So we went across the street and asked a man to fill our water bottles and all (both) our pots. While we were eating another man stopped and asked if we wanted to use his cell phone. We said no thanks we have two with us. After awhile he came back and brought us home made texas sheet cake. I like the people in Illinois! The only problem with our campsite was that I didn't get my shower so that didn't make me very happy especially after being so sweaty from riding in the HOT (did I mention that already?) weather.
The next morning we woke up to cloudy skies. We hurried up and packed up the tent and went into the cafe in town for breakfast. When we told the lady where we camped she said. You should've camped at the "other" park in town by the city pool, they have showers! We had a great breakfast and as we were getting ready to leave it started to rain. And that is pretty much how the day went. Rain, wind, rain, wind........... rain, wind.............but at least it was warm rain! We stopped for lunch at a bar in a town and had some really good chicken salad sandwiches. We were debating whether to stay in that town, and camp at the city park. There was a laundry mat just across the street. Or to go onto Henry. When we came out of the bar the sun was shining! So we went on for our last 20 miles of the day. While we were riding Heather called with a baby report and said her ultrasound was good. The baby is good and the due date is Dec. 10. It was good to hear from her. We rode into Henry and checked out the park (the one by the city pool!). But.....the pool was closed so we couldn't take a shower again! We ended up at the Harbor Bay motel down the street. It was a really nice place. We went to the grocery bought some soup and salad and called it dinner.
The next morning we woke up once again to overcast skies! All day we rode with black clouds swirling around. We did have cooler temperatures though. We stopped at 9.9 miles for orange juice, bananas and peanut butter. Todays riding was more interesting because we had some rolling hills and farm land, not just straight roads. But again with the wind, what's up with this? We were watching the clouds and rain moving ahead of us so we flew into Kanawee and stopped at a McDonald's. As we were getting off the bike one of the workers stuck his head out and said. What direction are you headed, we said northwest. He said we are watching a tornado on the northwest side of the town. Mmmmmmmmm.........let's go in for awhile and EAT! Just as we got inside it poured! Then the sun came out.....then it poured.......then the sun came out........ We called the campground that we were headed to near Cambridge and asked if it was raining out there? She said NO, but did YOU get wet and laughed? She was so funny! We decided to ride the 14 miles to the campground, but we didn't calculate the wind. We were going northwest and the wind was coming from the west. At one point we were going so slow that I thought that if someone was sitting on the side of the road reading a newspaper and we passed by, by the time that we got by you could read the whole front page! Now THAT is slow. It was quite a ride. The campground turned out to be really nice AND it had hot showers. We cooked beef stew and green beans for supper and headed to bed.
Today's ride was alittle shorter than we thought because we wanted to get to this bike shop. Since it is Saturday and they are closed on Sunday. Of course when we started in the morning it was raining, but it wasn't nearly as windy. The roads were great for riding with not much traffic. We got alittle turned around in Rock Island/Moline looking for the bike shop but you'll have that! Now we just need a place to stay. We were hoping to find a campground here in town, so we could go to church tomorrow and spend the day shopping and looking around. So we'll see what we can find.

By the way the picture of me above is a baby alert. Tiffany and Dustin are havin twins. We found out one is a boy and the other is still a mystery. Both babies are doing great and growing. It sounds like they may arrive alittle earlier than expected so we may be home in late November for the first babies and then stay for Scott and Heather's baby. I'm gonna be a grand aunt! I can't wait to get them on a bike!