A Hectic Ramble Toward Chicago

Our plan is to be in Chicago by Friday, June 5th, so have had to "ramble" at a pretty quick pace these first few days putting 1350 miles on the RV in 5 days.

June 2, (Tuesday) - Check the box on two more states!

We had a great morning ride that checked off two states we haven't biked in yet; Oklahoma and Arkansas.  We camped at Natural Falls State Park, OK which is only 6 miles from the Arkansas state line.  We mapped out a loop from the campground that swung through Siloam Springs, AR which is home to John Brown University.  It was a small, but very pretty campus.  It was 28.5 miles on great rural roads with little traffic, mild temperatures and relatively low humidity.

Back at the state park we took a short hike to the falls and the lake (fishing hole!).  The falls are the 2nd highest in Oklahoma at 77 feet.  This must be our trip for seeing things that are ranked number 2.

Then it was on to Eldon, MO for a short visit with Ted's Dad.   We parked for the night in Beth's brother, Curt's driveway in Wardsville.  They are in Florida for vacation.  Thanks, Curt.

June 3 (Wednesday) - Hannibal, MO...

Hannibal turned out to be a bust.   It is a good example of a mid-America small town historic main street that is dying.   Antique (read junk) shops, many closed and for sale, lined main street.  The Mark Twain museum is a collection of small homes named after the Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn fictional town with little history of Samuel Clemans' boyhood.    A lot of hype for a very mediocre attraction,   Do they even require kids to read Mark Twain anymore?

The other notable Hannibal childhood resident, Molly Brown (Titanic fame) has a museum that we did not visit.   She is less celebrated.  

We walked Main Street and moved on to Siloam Springs State Park in Illinois.   This is the second Siloam Springs we have visited.  The first was on our ride within Arkansas on Tuesday.  We continue to be impressed with the Illinois state park system.  We stayed in a couple on our cross country trip two years ago.  This one is nice as well.

June 4 (Thursday) - Less than a week to our first flat tire.
We rode out of Siloam Springs SP and hit a gravel road which had been covered in a fresh new layer of 1" crushed rock on the road.  It was a lot like riding on marbles.   Less than 5 miles into the ride, within sight of the payment, we blew out the front tube and tire.   Luckily the folded dollar bill in the tire trick held and we finished the 25 mile ride with no further problems.  On our ride across the country 2 years ago, we went nearly 6 weeks and more than 2500 miles without a flat!

The roads were hilly but relatively car free.    Illinois has an abundance of rural paved roads that make for great riding.  Today the humidity was up and the small gnats and flies were annoying so it was much better to keep moving.  

We have moved locations again and are now staying in Jubilee College State park just outside of Peoria, IL.  Another very nice IL state park and convenient to the Rock Island Rail-to-Trail.  We'll be doing a 30 mile loop with about 12 miles on the trail.  The Rock Island was the first Illinois state owned rail-to-trail path.

Jubilee College was a frontier college active from 1840 to 1862.  It was one of the earliest educational enterprises in Illinois.  The actual college site is on the National Register of Historic Places.