New friends, pretty sunsets, and of course, more hills!

Alright, here’s what has happened since our night of luxury in Dubuque…

We had planned to ride from Dubuque to Fulton, IL and stay at a campground there.  We called them from Dubuque and found out that they would be closed.  So, we spent some time on the hotel computer looking up campgrounds and phone numbers of places in the surrounding towns, and found one in Thomson, IL, just a few miles North of Fulton.  So, we were on our way.

We can’t seem to escape HILLS.  This part of the country is way more hilly than I ever thought it was.  The first half of our ride to Thomson brought us up and down some very large hills.  Especially memorable was Galena- a historic old river town, once home to U.S. Grant.  Basically, Galena is located in a valley.  So, to get into the town, we rode down a steep hill, of course, to leave town- we rode back UP!  We may have walked much of the way up 🙂  Sometimes, downhills are really fun, sort of like a reward to working your way up the hill, but in Galena, the downhill was so steep, the shoulder was quite small, and the potholes were terrible.  Going 35 mph on a bicycle down THAT kind of hill is not so fun!

Thankfully, after our lunch break, the hills got much smaller and easier.  We had a pretty nice ride into Thomson.  Once we got there, we stopped at “Arnold’s Bike and Embroidery,” a great bike and embroidery shop run by a husband and wife.  Betsy and I needed new brake pads after all those hills, so we picked those up there.  Arnold and his wife directed us to our next immediate need- ICE CREAM!  We needed a treat after working our legs so hard.  We got some delicious ice cream at a place called “Bear’s.”  Mmm!

Our campsite in Thomson was totally beautiful.  We made a nice dinner of spaghetti and pretzels, and enjoyed our perfect view of the sunset.  We did a little bike maintenance and then went to bed EARLY to be nice and rested for our ride to Bettendorf the following day.

The ride to Bettendorf was fabulous, because it was bike path nearly the entire way!  About halfway to the Quad cities, we met up with a group of three cyclists who were friends from a bike club.  Barb, Dick, and Roger were out for a leisurely ride and were headed back to the Quad cities, just like us.  They knew the trail super well, and knew what short cuts to take, and when to take a more scenic route, so they invited us to follow them.  It was wonderful to chat with them along the way, and it was great to not need to navigate for awhile.  The best part was stopping at a cute little ice cream shop in Hampton, right along the river, where Roger treated us all to sandwiches and ice cream.  Thanks Roger!  We met Sam, the owner of the shop, and he told us about another group who is rafting down the river and had been there just a few days before us.  We hope to run into them along the way.  We highly recommend this shop, the ice cream is DELICIOUS!!!

Eventually, Barb and Roger said goodbye to head to their respective homes.  Dick decided to see us all the way to Bettendorf, where he dropped us off just a little ways from Alisa’s Aunt and Uncle’s house.  We said goodbye to him, and then pedaled just 4 more miles up and down some more hills to the house we would stay at for the night.  Alisa’s family, Sue, Dale, and Katy were wonderful!  They took us out to dinner via a boat ride!  We got to experience being ON the river for the first time on this trip.  We took the boat back over to Illinios where we ate some fabulous Mexican food.  The sun was setting after dinner, so the ride back to the marina was SO beautiful.

Sent off from Bettendorf in the morning, we knew we would have a short ride to our first farm in Muscatine.  We took our time, stopping along the way to rest in parks, eat some muffins at a cafe in Blue Grass, and nap/draw/write in front of the library.  We ended up riding on some gravel roads in order to avoid the big highway 61 on the way to the farm, so it was a little slower going.  But, we have arrived at the Anderson farm, and received a warm welcome from Mark, Kari, and 4 of their 7 children.  We are excited to spend a week with them, and to give our legs and butts a little rest. 

Take care all,

Sarah

p.s. We finally put up some new pics, check them out!