The Road Less Traveled

Today I began my ride in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Which by the way is a really cool town, sort of historic, but a very small river town. Anyway, I headed out on highway 26 going south on the west side of the upper Mississippi river. What a wonderful road! It wound around with the curves of the river, up and down small hills. There were these really cool small houses on the right hand side of the highway with absolutely perfectly manicured yards, that faced the river. This is definitely a road that not many people travel. I spend the early morning dodging birds, bugs, bats, road kill and farm equipment. Losing the battle on dodging the bugs. But this ride was really cool. I got to see the sun rise over the Mississippi, or as they call it "The Great River". It was a very cool morning so there was mist rising off the water of the river and fog settling into the crevices of the mountains. I still can't get over how green and lush everything was. This has to be some of the most fertile ground anywhere. The depth of green was just amazing and the variations, I just can't describe.

I again was struck with the smells. That's one of the things I really love about riding a Harley that you don't get when taking a trip in a car. However, today not all the smells were all that pleasant. First what hit me was the smell of the marsh that extends for quite a good way's from the banks of the Mississippi. It's pretty much the smell of rot. Then just about every farmer had a huge compost pile working and the smell of decaying vegetation was very potent. Fresh black top because they were laying new road about every twenty miles. There was the lovely smell of livestock and manure. And of course the occasional skunk. But not all the smells I experienced on this back country river road were bad. There was the smell of fresh cut grass, moist dirt and there was some type of fermentation going on, either wine or beer, but it had a sour mash type aroma.

The early morning part of the ride was really just amazing. I was on the Iowa side of the river and wound my way down the river and went through Harpers Ferry and on down to Dubuque. Once there the road opened up and was more of a straight highway down to Moline where I crossed over into Illinois. My father in law, Scott, spent his early childhood in Iowa and my thoughts were on him most of the morning. I haven't seen him in some time and miss his wisdom and friendship a lot. Anyway, once in Illinois it was time to put some serious miles under my tires. I went down Interstate 74 to Peoria, which is where part of my mom's family is from. I didn't stop in Peoria because I wanted to meet up with DeeDee and Robert in Springfield. I was able to meet them at a restaurant for lunch right next to Lincoln's attorney's office. Springfield is a really neat city and one that is worth exploring if you are ever close enough. After lunch we made our last run down Interstate 55 to St. Louis and then on 80 miles west to Cuba, Missouri.

Overall, a very full day. Tomorrow we start our trip down Route 66. Are you ready to join me? We met up with the friends from England that we will be traveling with for the next week or so. They are great people and I'm really looking forward to our time on this historic highway. So far I've ridden through 35 states in 5,069 miles...not counting the miles I did in Hawaii and Alaska. I'll have to take a little break in a few day's to take care of some stuff back in Dallas, but look forward to sharing my tales of the road as I wrap up this adventure. Blessings to you and thanks for visiting my blog and joining me on this trip.


Sunrise over the Mississippi


What a beautiful state...at least the part I rode today


The mist rising from the Mississippi


A pretty typical scene, corn...corn...corn




Welcome to St. Louis. Did you know that the arch at Cowboy's Stadium is bigger than this arch? It's true!


State number 35. The sign was on the bridge, so DeeDee took this while driving. I hope to get a shot on the other side of the state when we leave