ARKansas - June 2015

[emptysea]

Day 6 Mexico, Mo to Davenport, IA

Ol' Mississippi, she's callin' my name
Catfish are jumpin'
That paddle wheel thumpin'
Black water keeps rollin' on past just the same -- From the Doobie Brothers' song "Black Water"

OK..where was I? Oh yeah, in Mexico.

At some point, and I don't recall exactly when, we decided that following the Mississippi might be a fun way to head north. Laura had arranged for overnights in Davenport, IA, Fennimore, WI, and Savanna, IL. She and Glen had come up with a few points of interest at which to stop along the way and, by the time we would make our east across Illinois to our homes on Sunday, we should have dodged the foul weather that would pass below us on it's eastward path. That last part didn't exactly work out, but we'll get to that in due course.

Glen asked me to create a route from Mexico to Nauvoo, IL. I saw a Missouri county road that looked interesting, so I plotted a route to take J to US54 to MO79 in Louisiana, MO and then ride along the river through Hannibal. We'd pick up US61 on the north end of Hannibal and then kick it up to our lunch stop in and tour of the Mormon town of Nauvoo, IL

We headed out and J was reminiscent of the "alphabet" county road in Wisconsin--flat farm fields, not much traffic, a few curves. Most of the fields were waterlogged from the past month or more of excessive rain.

A couple of maps in absence of photos (camera never recovered from the first big rainstorm of the trip)

County Highway J
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Ozark%20Mountain%20Daredevils/Mexico%20OUt_zpsemfnixdj.jpg.html]

US54/US61
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Ozark%20Mountain%20Daredevils/frankford%20mo_zpsivhcgx22.jpg.html]

As I recall it, the weather looked threatening dead ahead of us, so I turned north on US61 to keep ahead or astride of the rain. I'm still disappointed about being forced of track because 79 from Louisiana, MO north to Hannibal looks like pretty good on a map.

After I turned our caravan off of eastbound US54 on to northbound US61, I had that nagging feeling that I had turned the wrong way. You know the feeling, right? A slightly elevated heart rate. That warm then hot feeling on the back of your neck. The odd and counter-intuitive urge to speed up. Yeah, I had all that. I really hate when I make wrong turns, but particularly so when we have time and/or distance requirements for the day. We had a 300 mile day with a 2+ hour stopover in the middle of it, so I was feeling a little flustered at my apparent mistake. Oddly enough, I am never bothered when following someone who makes a wrong turn; I realize that it is just part of what happens when you are not following the Google-prescribed path.

US61 is a 4 lane, limited access highway in this area and it turns out that the next real exit after I began to worry that we were going the wrong way was over 10 warm-necked miles away. As each mile ticked by, I did the automatic doubling exercise in time and distance:

"Well that's 2 miles and 2 minutes."

Then a mile later,
"4 miles and 4 minutes..that's assuming we average 60, which we won't so more like 5 minutes"

"Where's the flippin' exit?? 6 miles and 10 minutes off track now. Damn my neck is hot. Do they know that I'm lost? There's not even a shoulder to pull off on. Who designs a road with out shoulders anyway? Freakin idiots".

"8 miles. ugh."

All this angst and I was on the right road and going in the right direction all along. US61 does go north, but the section we were on was clocking more to the west. I knew that we were going west and I knew the Mississippi was to our east. Thus, we were going the wrong way. However, the Mississippi does not flow perfectly north to south and the river was actually running roughly parallel to US61. By Hannibal, the river bends to the west and 61 bends to the east and the two thoroughfares essentially meet. Of course, I would not know any of this until I pulled off at Frankford.

The problem with the Frankford exit off of US61 is that it takes you into Frankford. After a half mile of so of riding down the appropriately named Low Street, a cracked and overly-crowned stretch of road past run-down houses and mobile homes, we turned right on Main Street into the heart of this bustling metropolis. I pulled our line of bikes off to the side of the street to get my bearings. Just ahead was The Wagon Wheel Cafe which obviously had not opened for business for the day as of yet.

They're probably only open for lunch and dinner.
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Ozark%20Mountain%20Daredevils/E479DE5E-3718-4A80-B5B9-423A2544F6F0_zpssffsoqpv.jpg.html]

Why did he stop here?
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Ozark%20Mountain%20Daredevils/95202311-8CA4-4181-8533-3E13BBDF7002_zpszmlqk96e.jpg.html]

Once I realized where we were, we retraced our path to US61 and continued north into Hannibal. We re-fueled there and worked our way through the town without stopping. We did not have time to stop here this time since our goal was Nauvoo for lunch, but I think Hannibal is a town worthy of some exploration -- How could Mark Twain's hometown not be.

Map to Hannibal
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Ozark%20Mountain%20Daredevils/to%20hannibal_zps1vfme1ts.jpg.html]


Our next stop was Nauvoo, IL. We crossed the river into Illinois and turned north on IL96. Great road that winds along overlooking the river to the west and looking up at the lovely homes dotting the bluffs to the east.

Nauvoo is an interesting place. As far as I can tell, the vast majority of the businesses are run by Mormons and most of the residents are members of the Church of Latter Day Saints as well. We walked around the temple; by far the least welcoming house of worship I have have visited. However, the locals we met were extremely nice to us. Lots of smiles. Friendly. Clearly devout.

The downtown area looked like the downtown area of many small towns in the area. The local movie house at some point was converted to a cafeteria and we were told that the food was good. It was.

After lunch we toured the town on foot. Mike, Judy, Cheryl and I found ourselves in the LDS visitor center. Incredibly interesting with a detailed history of how the Mormons came to Nauvoo and continued on to Utah. There is a distinct bias in how they present their history, but at least there's no question about their motivations or perspectives.

Nauvoo is a pretty town with beautiful views across the Mississippi and a fascinating history. Check it out if you're in the area. Oh, and they have a nice little ice cream shop. A quick stop there, then it was back on the bikes, back down IL96, back across the river, back into Keokuk, Iowa, and back on to US61 (now joined with US218) north to Davenport, Iowa where we would bed down for the night.


Map to Nauvoo
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Ozark%20Mountain%20Daredevils/nauvoo_zpsep0eiswv.jpg.html]




Downtown Nauvoo
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Ozark%20Mountain%20Daredevils/0D94B5B4-3533-4230-916C-201D4C2AF098_zpsxt8ffvpb.jpg.html]

Lunch
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Ozark%20Mountain%20Daredevils/16FB3FF8-D4FB-4326-A249-C391DCDD1B93_zps5nzh5y5g.jpg.html]

[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Ozark%20Mountain%20Daredevils/CCAA762B-DEEA-4439-A47D-85B02D0E1479_zpss7m8jfrr.jpg.html]

Welcome?
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Ozark%20Mountain%20Daredevils/A8C2C7A5-71A4-4297-9CF2-CE71FA6DCBF5_zps7y37kwrf.jpg.html]

Joseph and Hyrum Smith beginning their trip to Carthage, IL to, depending on one's perspective, face charges of treason and ultimately be killed by an angry mob or to face their maker and martyr themselves for the greater good of the Church.
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Ozark%20Mountain%20Daredevils/96B3D4AC-5300-431C-9DEC-7A39563CC07B_zpsfxfjxee3.jpg.html]

Heavenly view of a Roman Catholic church and a Mormon temple
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Ozark%20Mountain%20Daredevils/D7F7DB21-4AD9-45C4-B6A9-69293D528CD0_zpsc117a0fo.jpg.html]

Glen has spent a lot of time in the Quad Cities (Davenport is the largest of the four) for various reasons throughout his life. He knew of a restaurant on our way into Davenport where we could have dinner. After a 300 mile riding day with quite a bit of walking tossed in for good measure, it was good to sit down and eat. I don't recall the name of the place, but it was very nice. If I figure it out, I'll amend this post. [Edit: Thunder Bay Grille is on Business 61 just east of I-80 in Davenport. They have three locations (Davenport, Rockford, IL, and Pewaukee, WI). After a leisurely dinner, it was a short and pleasant enough evening ride through the city to our hotel.]

Home for the night was the Fairfield Inn in Davenport. I believe we all slept like rocks.

End of Day 6...