Walking in Memphis-Day 2

B.B. King and friends.  India was the nice lady in the bottom photo who took the larger group shot of us with her buds.

The other King in the Memphis TN Welcome Center.  This was a cool place to stop before heading over the walking bridge to Mud Island.

Mud Island has a scaled topographic fountain of the Mississippi and the other river valleys that flow into the Mississippi.  One step is about 1 mile of distance.  Each inch of depth is approx 8ft of river depth.  There would normally be water flowing ending in a big pool (Golf of Mexico).  However, the park is scheduled for maintenance.

Our extraction team of Sam and JoAnn drove down to Memphis.  Together, we revisited the park that Wendy and I had been in earlier today.  As you can see, another severe clear afternoon sky.  Thank you Memphis, definitely a must see stop along the MRT.

Day 26 Walking in Memphis: Marion AR to Memphis, TN 35mi

We were within 16 miles of Memphis after having bicycled to the KOA stay last night.  I could barely believe that the wind was still blowing us south again this morning with yet another clear blue sky.   We made it into West Memphis quickly then went in search of the bike paths that would get us over the Mississippi and into Memphis TN.

The MRT signs have been too few and far in between for us to follow without our own navigation maps.  This was one of the last we'd see on this adventure.  It was on the Big River Trail approach to the Mississippi River crossing bridge.

There is a pedestrian/bicycling bridge that is separate from the auto and train bridges the cross the river.

Here is a view of the bridge we crossed the river on from the Memphis side of the river.

Here is a view up river from a elevated pathway along the posh looking bluff neighborhood overlooking the river.

There was alot of construction along the waterfront park and some adjacent crossroads that had that trail closed but the higher bluff path was open.

We were in search of Beale Street. It was also under construction but we managed to access the park at the base of the street where the following photos were taken.

This bench looked a bit fishy.

We were getting hungry for some lunch by this time and found a favorite eatery in the immediate neighborhood- Gus's.

As the sign says, it's all about fried food and especially fried chicken.

After lunch, Wendy and I retraced our route to reach our hotel in West Memphis for tonight. The Great River Epic Adventure Tour had come to an unofficial close.  I learned something about the changing  peoples and communities along our way down a great river which is also changing as it travels southward.  I learned that racoons are in dire need of getting lessons on how to cross the street.  I learned that my sister is a reliably awsome organized bicycle camping companion.  I'm grateful to our spouses that gave us the opportunity to roam freely around the Mississippi River valley for the last month.  I hope that maybe you saw something that caught your eye that may make you want to visit this interesting and important part of our country. Good bye, y'all and thanks for checking in on us from time to time.

Wendy and I were fortunate to avoid any flat tires.  I had noticed the infamous "goat head" thorn the last couple of days.  These pesty things reaked havoc on inner tubes the last trip I was on.  

We traveled a total of 1644 miles over 26 days.  We didn't take any days off but did have some shorter days that probably helped us recover for the subsequent days to follow.  Most of our days had us waking up at 6:30am and being ready to ride by 8am.

Day 25 Do You Know the Way to KOA? Hayti MO to Marion AR 95mi

Wendy and I were hotelled up closer to the Arkansas border than I thought.  I knew it would be yet another fantastic day for bicycling south. The US flag hanging nearby the hotel was still pointing southerly this morning even though the internet weather genie predicted otherwise.  The sky was a deep blue with no clouds.

We came apon this 1924 vintage "Entering Arkansas" arch(Entering Missouri on flip side) on the road less traveled that we took into Arkansas.

Our original plan was to possibly find another hotel 50+ miles closer to Memphis today.  We really wanted to tent outdoors one last time before we reached Memphis.  We found a KOA Memphis Journey campground that would accept tents in Marion, AR just north of West Memphis.  The only snag was it would take 95mi of pedaling to and alot of help from the wind to reach it.  Our navigation devices seemed intent on auto routing us down any washboard gravel roads they could add to the route so we ditched the digital devices for once and used common sense dead reconning with simpler maps to get us back on a fast course.

The weather cooperated and we rolled into camp just before 5pm.   The camp is nice but a bit noisy as it's very close to I-55 freeway but I think I can sleep through a fire alarm tonight.  I told Wendy we earned our right to sleep in tomorrow as we are knocking on Memphis's door.

We might have time for a quick game of Uber chess after breakfast . 

Day 24 Whose Fault Is It? Charleston to Hayti MO 78mi

The highlight of the day was our stop at the river town of New Madrid.  It's known for the series of earthquakes that occurred over a day or so in the early 1800's as well as the site of a major Union Civil War campaign to drive out Confederate control of the Mississippi.

There isn't any deep crevasse to mark the fault line, just this simple sign on top of the current day levy that protects the town from floodwaters.

There was tug activity going on in front of New Madrid's riverfront park.

The museum next to the riverfront park was a great place to learn about the details of the epic earthquake that shook the area in the early 1800's and the Civil War battles that took place here.

We took a snack stop at the New Madrid riverfront after visiting the museum.  I needed to add a zip tie to hold my safety flag in place.

We ended our day in Hayti, MO.  We visited the local's favorite BBQ joint - Chubby's then tried an advertised local food - fried pies.  I got a blueberry pie and Wendy tried the cherry.  It was ok but not quite up to homemade quality. 

Day 23 Goodnes, Gracious, Great Balls of Fire (& Cotton): Cape Girardeau to Charleston MO 49mi

The weather has really been cooperating since we survived the drowning we took four days ago.  Cloudless skies, moderate temperatures, and the wind blowing from the north half of the compass have made our southerly trek more enjoyable.

We came across a hilly ridge to traverse 10 miles into today's ride.  There was a very steep section that sent Wendy's grade alert on her Garmin into red alert and had me gasping for more air.  The above photo was taken several miles later.  Wendy was just cresting another of the rolling hills in the ridgeline.

North of our destination for tonight we came across this scene.  I had always thought farmers turned the corn stubble (left after harvesting) under but I guess some of them like to burn their field to the ground.  This was a huge burn and we saw other separate burns underway as well.

It turns out that large cotton farms can be grown in this region.  Wendy grabbed some cotton balls for the next noisy campground we happen to stay at.

A little further down the same road we came across these large rolls of cotton balls.  

We stopped in at the Charleston Chamber of Commerce.  Karen pretty much runs the place.  This was a great place to view alot of town history and memorabilia.  We were looking for a place to pitch a tent on such a nice day.  She had some suggestions that we had already vetted with no luck.  She gave us a couple of other options as well but in the end her recommendation for one of the hotel options in town convinced us to stay put.  She started to give us some restaurant recommendations in town then out of left field asked if we'd like to try some of her homemade chicken and dumplings.  We of course said yes.  She put us in charge of the Chamber for 15 minutes while she made the round-trip to her home to get the chicken and dumplings.  I can't think of anything that says "Welcome to Charleston" better than some home cooked food.  Karen gave us a history lesson on the towns annual Dogwood & Azalea Festival around the 3rd week in April each year while we ate and talked.

We said our goodbyes and headed a few doors down to the local ice cream shop which also had alot of character.  

So if you ever decide to ride the Missouri side of the MRT, make sure you stop in and say hello to Karen then head on over to the Scoop Ice Cream Shoppe.

Day 22 Turnin N Burnin 70 mi Chester IL to Cape Girardeau MO

On the route out of town this morning we located the murals of the characters that Chester IL claims as their own.  There are statues scattered throughout the town but I kind of prefer the colorful artwork someone painted on the side of these buildings.

The first few miles out of town carried some heavy traffic and wasn't the most bicycle friendly.  It eventually transitioned to a  roadway with better shoulders and straight runs to make us more visible.

You are never far from a railroad when traveling along the Mississippi.

You can sort of see what makes up one of the better sections of the IL road to Cape Girardeau in the right of this photo taken at a typical (guard)rail snack break today.  Wendy saw a semi without its trailer who had the slogan " Turnin N Burnin" on the cab and that became our motivation for the day - keep (the pedals) turning and keep burning up the miles.

Wendy calls this her (alfalfa) Field of Dreams shot of me.  We were off the highway on a parallel road along the levy in southern Illinois.

We were somewhere between the town of Wolf Lake and the town of Ware when we came across this street sign.    I howled my approval of the name of the street.  Just don't visit on a night with a full moon!

A business along the road we were on had this mosaic of the USA and where we are currently located on our adventure.

The river crossing from the IL to MO side of the Mississippi into Cape Girardeau was very bicycle friendly with easily a std car lane wide shoulder on the run up to the bridge and a still heafty shoulder on the bridge deck.

In Cape Girardeau we learned that the "Camping" part of the Cape Camping & RV Park must be silent because they were only allowing RVs and no tents even though their web site showed tents in its photos.  No stars for that place.    There were no other camping options in the immediate area.  We spent our money at a nice budget hotel that we both liked instead.

Tomorrow we head further south, this time on the west side of the river. Good night y'all.