What an incredible day today. We had been communicating by email with Renate Dubois. She and her husband, Jim, are avid cyclists and host travelling cyclists. We did not stay with them but they and another friend joined us for a morning ride, escorting us from our motel, across the bridge, along the backroads of the Mississippi delta. We enjoyed the personalized tour and visiting with them. We are in Illinois!
It was cooler and drier this morning, in fact the weather was wonderful all day. And the morning was the flattest we will probably experience on our whole trip until we near Savannah. What a wonderful change, but we got back into mild hills in the afternoon. We rode through fields of corn and soybeans. At the old town of Thebes, oops there was a hill, we looked at an old a stone courthouse overlooking the banks of the river. Dred Scott was imprisoned there on his way to trial in St. Louis.
On through the delta farms and woods. In Olive Branch at Horseshoe Lake, our hosts turned back for home. Their 50 mile ride today was a warmup for their century tomorrow.
Horseshoe Lake was a "stump lake" entirely full of cyprus and a deciduous tree. The entire lake was at this time of year covered in what looked like green algae, but actually just teeny leaves floating on the surface, eerily beautiful.
As we entered Cairo we felt what we had heard about. Years ago it was a bustling town relying on river traffic for its income. In the 60s race riots totally ruined it. The downtown was entirely deserted as were many many homes. Historic Millionaire's Row had some beautiful homes, but that was about it.
Fort Defiance Park at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers was deserted but offered us a view of the rivers. We were fascinated by a tug pushing a line of barges, 5 long and 2 wide. The bow of this huge entire rig was not 10 feet from shore and it was maneuvered to make a sharp turn form the Mississippi up the Ohio, make exact use of the currents and power of the tug.
We had been warned about the bridge over the Ohio. Bill scouted it out and we decided to load the bikes on the car. It was very narrow with fast traffic including big rigs. On the other side we grabbed a BBQ sandwich, unloaded the bikes and were on our way. In Kentucky now!
We rode another 20 miles, back in rolling hills. We were following a route that Martha had found on the internet, but the directions were spotty with old county road numbers so we had to ask a fellow mowing his lawn for directions. Once again nice quiet backroads amongst farms and fields.
We arrived in Columbus at Belmont State Park located on the bluffs of the Mississippi and the site of many battles in the Civil War. There were old Confederate trenches right behind out tents. We enjoyed a great meal and then were treated to a wonderful sunset.
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