Day 68, Farmington, MO to Murphysboro, IL

Miles – 80

Miles From Start/To Finish – 3,159/1,186

Ave Riding Speed – 3-32 mph

Hours Start to Finish – 8.5

Weather – Partly Cloudy/Hazy 84

We did a nice job getting up at 5am again today and routinely moving about the room without barely uttering a peep other than, “I made you coffee” or “did you get sunscreen on yet?” We rolled our bikes down to the Hampton Inn Express breakfast area at a little after 6am and stopped for a quick bite. I had scrambled eggs and gravy, just for something different, and Kim had some cereal. I chatted with a couple on the way out the door who were heading to the dirt track races in town and Kim was giving the front desk manager a pep talk after she’d had a couple unruly guests last night. We were on the road by 6:30am.

It was humid, but only 65 degrees with a lite haze across the sky. It almost felt like rain, but it wasn’t in the forecast. We rode about 2-miles southeast through Farmington neighborhoods to get back to our route and picked up Hwy F heading east and had the 2-lane road mostly to ourselves for the early morning hours. For 35-miles rode through many small communities with no services and we only had 6 of the Missouri type climbs of 150-300 feet and pulled into St. Mary, population 350. We stopped at a small convenience store to fill up our water bottles and split a fountain lemonade.

From St. Mary we continued east on Hwy H and glided down to the Mississippi lowlands and pedaled 10-miles of flat land. It was lovely! Off in the distance we could see the metal truss bridge that we’d need to ride across the Mississippi River into Illinois. There were 2 gas stations/convenience stores on the Missouri side of the river and we thought we should grab something to eat as this would be our last chance during the ride today so we pulled in to the station on the southside of the highway. Both places were extremely busy and I noticed mostly Illinois license plates. Kim and I split a hot dog and a bag of chips and iced our water bottles.

Our maps said the bridge crossing the Mississippi was long and narrow with no shoulder and that we could call 911 for a non-emergency and ask for a police escort to cross it. Kim asked the cashier about crossing the bridge and she said most of the drivers will be cool, so we decided we’d ride it and place our bet on a simple crossing.

We pulled back onto the highway. Kim went in front and hug the white line and I was behind her and said I probably ride out in the lane and keep any vehicle thinking of squeezing us from going past unless there wasn’t any oncoming traffic. We rode quickly and crossed into Illinois without incident.

Upon entering Chester, Illinois we saw an Illinois visitor center and a statue of Popeye off to the right and swung in for a couple pictures. Chester is the home of Popeye The Sailor Man because it’s the hometown of E.C Segar, creator. A lady and her husband were buying some fresh fruit from a couple people that had setup their roadside stand in the parking lot. She asked if we’d like her to take our picture and we accepted the offer. We chatted for a bit and she said they come down to Chester to cross into Missouri to buy gas and that a lot of people to that for gas, cigarettes’ and lottery tickets. Evidently gas is about $0.50 cheaper in Missouri.

From Chester, our maps had two routes we could take for the next 35-45 miles to reach our destination, Murphysboro, IL. We had planned on the longer route, the Mississippi Levee Alternate, because it was much flatter. From the visitor center we turned onto a scenic Mississippi road along the river and hooked up with Hwy 3 and rode a few miles. I looked down at my map and told Kim I think we missed a turn to the right about a mile back. We pulled over and saw that we were now on a more direct route, a third alternative, heading to our destination. It was Hwy 3, but the traffic was a little heavier and there was still no shoulder. We figured we could cut 10-miles off our day and kept going.

There was one last climb coming out of the Mississippi lowland to get us up to Murphysboro and we had to walk half of it. Upon arriving in Murphysboro, we rode through the middle of town to get to the Holiday Inn on the east side.  We met a guy and his wife parked near the front door of the hotel. They were carrying a couple road bikes and I chatted with him for a couple minutes while Kim checked us in. He asked if I’d like to use his bike pump and of course I did, freshened up the air in our tires and thanked him.

When I went inside the hotel Kim was chatting with the front desk lady. She said our room wasn’t quite ready yet. I noticed Fresca in the cooler and grabbed one bottle and a small peanut M&M’s. We kept chatting and she said our room was now ready. I told her to make sure to put my snack items on our room and she said they were on the house for having to wait for our room. That was a very simple and nice touch.

After showering we decided on pizza for dinner for Martel’s. It was recommended by the front desk lady and there weren’t any restaurants within walking distance. The pizza was awesome and went well with more Fresca.