Day 14 Return to the River: Dixon to Fulton 50mi

Wendy and I enjoyed our time with Mom (Emily) and Dad(Jim) but it was time to get back to our trek down the Mississippi.  There was still the possibility of more rain later in the afternoon so we decided to take a more direct westerly route to reach the Mississippi.  Our destination for the day would be the city of Fulton, IL.

It would be a slightly shorter number of miles to both give our legs a rest and give us more time to explore the river towns of Fulton, IL and Clinton, IA.

But first we took a few shots on our way out of Dixon.  

Dixon IL is the county seat of Lee County situated along the Rock River.  One of its more famous citizens was our President Ronald Reagan who grew up in Dixon.  Supposedly, as a lifeguard, he rescued 20+ persons from a smimming area upstream.  As he was a reportedly handsome guy, I never heard the stats on how many actually needed rescuing and how many faked it just to get up close and personal.  I'm in front of statue of a younger Ronald Reagan on horseback that resides along the banks of the Rock River that flows through town.

Another of Dixon's famous visitors was another president you may have heard of, Abe Lincoln.   This is the Land of Lincoln so it's anyone's guess on how many Lincoln statues there are in Illinois.  And if you're counting Lincoln pennies the numbers are astronomical.

Dixon's riverfront park.

This is one of the more interactive Dixon building murals to strike a pose in front of.

It was time to get down the road.  Here, Wendy is paused in front of a soybean field turning golden brown in preparation for harvesting.

Corn loves to grow tall in the IL soil, rainfall, and sun.

A railside snack stop over a country creek.  Time to down some Cuties before the last stretch into Fulton.

We arrived in Fulton at about 1pm in the afternoon.  There was a diner (Jenny's Diner) in Clinton (across the river by bridge) that we decided to go to.  This is the combined welcome sign to Clinton and to Iowa.  

After lunch we recrossed the river back into Fulton where we would be staying for the night.   Fulton is named after Robert Fulton.  One of Fulton's attractions well worth the visit is an authentic Netherlands operational windmill on the banks of the Mississippi.

It was built in the Netherlands, disassembled with all beams numbered, shipped by boat to Chicago, then trucked to Fulton and reassembled by a team of craftsman from Netherlands.

Here is a look at some of the inner workings of the mill that is used to grind corn, wheat, rye, buckwheat, and flax into flours. John is the volunteer who explained how the parts of the windmill all connect. He is standing next to the very heavy grinding stone mechanism. We also learned that the windmill operators in Europe during WWII created a way to use the normal sail material that can cover the blades to signal if the German army was in the area or if all was clear.

Tomorrow we head down the river on the Illinois side via a levy trail. 

Day 13 Detoured to Dixon IL 60mi

Expected rainy weather for the coming overnight lasting into the next morning and proximity to our parents home had Wendy and I detour from the Mississippi and reroute to Dixon IL.   This was always in our alternative plans for this trip. Cindy and Doug would be heading south towards Rock Island, IL to stay overnight with bicycling friends they knew then finish their Mississippi trek the next day a little further down stream.  We said our goodbyes then headed east over the causeway and bridge that connects Sabula and Savanna IL.   We were able to immediately jump onto a bike path that supposedly goes as far south as Moline and Rock Island, IL.  At Thomson we dropped off the bike path and began our eastward trek toward Dixon IL.

Thomson was the last stronghold of civilization before venturing out into the cornfield wilderness that covers most of this part of IL. We had a good 40+ mi to cross to get to Dixon so we provisioned up at the Thompson Casey's with a few bottles of , you guessed it, chocolate milk to add to our staples of Cuties, bananas, and apples.

Fortunately the wind was with us and we landed on our parents front steps by the early afternoon ahead of any rain.  

It was time to enjoy family,  provision up, drop off some items that we didn't think we would need for the remainder of the trip, and do some maintenance on our bicycles and ourselves.    Tomorrow, we would be heading back to the big river.