The New Next Thing
- otomola
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
I began my next iteration of “road trip” heading west on Sunday, October 5. I had a late start, around 3PM. I drove 335 miles to a rest stop on I-80 near DuBois, Pennsylvania. I had a great sleep there. I woke early and began driving again around 6AM, making decent time as I continued on I-80 through Ohio, Indiana, and into Illinois. I stopped for gas a couple times, but mostly I kept driving until I took a thirty-minute break at a rest stop around mile marker 50, near Princeton, Illinois. I had driven around 920 miles at this point, and I was determining where to stay that night.
Driving across the farmlands of the USA is a wonderful experience.
I used the Recration.gov app to locate a campground right off I-80 on the Mississippi River. I knew there were several Army Corp of Engineer campgrounds on the river in this general area. I saw that a place called Fisherman’s Corner had available sites, and it was only a mile off the interstate. I decided to spend Monday night there and then continue west on Tuesday. I pulled in and parked in campsite site 22 just after sunset.
Fisherman’s Corner is quiet and peaceful due to the presence of trees and the river, which dominates one’s view here. There is also a forest across the street. It contains the Elton E. Fawks Bald Eagle Refuge, but it is closed from October 1 to April 1 “to prevent disturbance to the large population of bald eagles which roost here.” There is noise from the road and train tracks adjacent to the park, and an occasional boat horn. That may sound bothersome, but I did not find it so.
Some of the campsites are only about twenty yards away from the riverbank. Most of the campsites are large enough to accommodate big rigs, forty feet or longer. Each campsite has a concrete driveway, and the majority are level. A few have a slight grade. They have electric for 20A/30A/50A. (A = amp)
I discovered there is a bike trail that passes right by the park and leads into Quad Cities. It is sixty-three miles long when all the trail options are totaled. This is why, on Tuesday morning, I decided I would stay another night. I had no place to be, and it seemed nice here. I needed to be in Denver Sunday night, and I had no set plans as to what I would do or where I would stay the next few days. I could go for a nice bike ride and explore the area.
I rode 35 miles on Tuesday. Leaving the campground, the trail follows the road short distance passes then turns back towards the river, passing through a state park with another campground. It then swerves back towards the road, away from the river for a short distance before heading through a residential area, once again going right along the river. Then it goes through another park, one that has a frisbee golf course, eventually coming out in an industrial commercial area that is protected by a levee about 20-30 high. The bike trail goes along the top of the levee for two miles, then the levee ends, and the trail runs adjacent to the Ben Butterworth Parkway for the next three miles. There is a nice linear park along the parkway with numerous benches, playgrounds, fitness stations, and a marked 10,000 step course. This section of the trail receives a lot of use by bikers, runners, and walkers. Many of the walkers had dogs, too.
After about nine miles from the campground, I had reached the I-74 bridge. It was new in 2022, and it connects Moline, IL with Bettendorf, IA. The bridge is a mile long and rises seventy feet above the river. It has great views. After going over the bridge and riding south, the trail was nice for several miles. It also goes north several miles, though most of it was through industrial sections that ranged from poor scenery to feeling sketchy.
Before my ride, I noticed the headset of my new bike, the Surly Disc Trucker, seemed loose, so I rode to Jerry & Sparky’s Bike Shop in Davenport, Iowa. I met Jerry and two other bike mechanics at the shop. They each took a look at it. Jerry tried to tighten the headset, a quick and easy process, and they each concluded there was no problem with it. Whatever was causing the symptom, which mimicked a loose headset, was not the headset. They think it has to do with the brake pads, and they suggested I take it to an authorized Surly dealer to have to worked on under warranty. I’ll probably do that in Denver.
Later in the day, after my ride, I talked with Sherri, a woman I had met that morning while she was walking her dogs. She had two Golden Retrievers, one adult and one about a year old. She is from Wisconsin. She had a Class C motorhome and an eBike. She had told me about her eBike, manufactured by Gazelle, a Netherlands company, and how she enjoyed it greatly. She had been doing rides here of about forty miles a day. She said she comes here to this campground specifically because of the bike trail.
It turns out that Jerry & Sparky’s carries Gazelle eBikes, too. Jerry told me about a situation with warranties, related to my Surly, and used a Gazelle as an example of good warranty service. When he mentioned it, it rang a bell that Sherri had mentioned her bike was a Gazelle. Jerry gave me a map of the bike trail system and another to give to Sherri. I gave her the map when I saw her that evening.
We were talking at her campsite, on the riverbank, when she shouted “Oh my God, there’s a cruise ship! It’s the Viking Mississippi!” and she promptly started taking pictures. The campground is right at Lock and Dam #14 on the Mississippi, and apparently the ship had just come across the lock as it headed upstream. I looked up info on the boat. The Viking Mississippi is a huge boat, 450 feet long with a capacity of 386 guests plus 148 crew members.
It turns out Sherri’s excitement over the cruise ship is tied to her own experience with boats. She told me she has been around boats all her life and is a captain working on Lake Michigan. She said she doesn’t have a license to captain a boat of that size, though she did not say what kind of boats she captains. She seemed thrilled about seeing the Viking Mississippi.
I ended up staying at Fisherman’s Corner two more nights, deciding each morning to stay another night and do another ride. My rides Wednesday and Thursday were each about thirty-five miles. All in all, the trail was a welcome entity, but it is not nearly as nice as the trail at Farrington Woods at the Danbury-Brewster border which, though only 3.5 miles long, is in totally good shape in a beautiful, natural setting. It will soon be connected to the Maybrook Trail, and that goes 40 miles more all the way to the Hudson River though mostly forest and reservoir areas.
I walked out to Lock & Dam #14 Thursday afternoon. The area of the river adjacent to the campground seems motionless, as if there is flow, no movement of water. In looking at a map, one can see why this might be the case, as we sit on a pool of water that is shielded by a section of land reaching out into the river. It creates a sort of protected area, a cove. Out farther, the water is flowing, and that becomes very apparent when looks at the flow over the dam. The water on the north side of the dam is about 20-25 feet higher than on the south side. The actual “lock” is on the Iowa side of the dam, so I could not look at its physical characteristics. It must be large enough to fit that 450 feet Viking ship, as well as numerous barges that float up and down the river.
It rained overnight Thursday. I woke early, had my cereal and my tea, and did a little walk around the campground. I decided to write this rather than ride on the wet trails. I left around noon and drove to a rest stop on I-80 near Underwood, IA. I stayed there the night. I woke around 7AM, after a great sleep, and started driving. I passed through Omaha about a half hour later and am now near Grand Island, Nebraska.
I am wandering, meandering like a stream, general direction known but path flexibly changing …
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