93 miles ridden – 2800 feet climbed – temperature 33C

With a long ride and temperatures expected to exceed 100F mid/late afternoon it was an early start – breakfast at 05:00 and load/leave at 06:00. I have to admit that facing food that early wasn’t easy, especially the pepper/onion scrambled egg mix! Nevertheless there had to be an upside and the sun rising over the Mississippi River certainly made up for it:

Our first 50 miles followed a network of bike paths, most of which were on the river itself which looked stunning in the early morning light:

Occasionally we were led away from the river and went through swamps. No alligators this far north but lots of flies and mosquitos:

The various towns we went through were quite supportive of cyclists – Port Byron with sculpture and Fulton on a more spiritual level:

We enjoyed a lot of shade on these paths and there was very little climbing but we were still frustrated when we arrived at the second SAG stop in Savanna that we couldn’t get over the railroad track for over 5 minutes while the train passed us. Apart from the retro cinema it was another city that has seen better days.

The gentle route through the town came to an abrupt end as we turned right into an immediate climb that started very steeply and that set the scene for the next 40 miles as we climbed up onto the top of the surrounding ridges. Suddenly we were in rolling farmland and enjoyed very quiet roads.

These final 40 miles seemed to take an eternity, not helped by a mile long section of gravel. But eventually we did arrive in Galena which was wonderfully busy with almost all stores occupied and open. The only drawback is the parking. While we are used to parallel parking, our American cousins are not. This manifests itself on 2 ways – a) it takes them ages to park in the first place which holds up traffic and can be funny to watch and b) they tend to throw open their car doors without looking behind them which can be petrifying.

Anyway Durty Gurt’s Burger Joynt in Galena made a blinding strawberry milkshake which was just as well because the final 2 miles was a climb out of town and it seemed to have become even hotter and probably peaked while we were out riding at around 35C. Still we got to sit in the air-conditioned lobby of the hotel waiting for our bags which although wonderful for us must have been somewhat malodorous for other guests –  they were certainly keen for us to get to our rooms….