Stage 14 -- Still searching for roads [WAS-15, USA-nil]

29 August 2010 -- The road out of Waterloo was perfect and a seven o’clock start meant two hours of riding in cool temperatures. About 30 miles out of Waterloo the shoulder started to deteriorate and then disappeared altogether. Picked up the bike and we drove a while. In a new highway section, the shoulder was good again so we unpacked the bike and I started riding again. It wasn’t long before the shoulder disappeared completely again. I had reservations, and Dad was completely against riding on the road there. He is my Dad. I recorded it as a 40-mile day. We kept driving. About 40 miles from Cairo, the good shoulder returned and I decided that we would get a motel in Cairo and return tomorrow to do that stretch. The only problem was there was we did not encounter a single habitable motel in Cairo (I don’t think any of the stimulus package has reached Cairo). I said we would do that stretch on the way back to Wisconsin – as it will be on our way and it is ride-able. We crossed the bridge and headed west into Missouri. We have identified a route that looks good and will take us to the ferry into Kentucky on the east side of the Mississippi. I am sitting here waiting for the local news because it has been getting increasingly overcast all day, and there have been drizzles tonight. It strikes me that the riding each day – the three and a half to four and a half hours – is the calmest part of the day. In the morning I pack the car and take Sam for a long walk. Then we go to a local place for breakfast. After, off we go to the start. At the end of the ride, its find a motel and unpack, then a long hot shower. We are always shopping for something – drinks, ice, a timer, toothpaste, snacks, gas, not to mention the laundry I wrote about earlier. During all of this I walk Sam at least twice more – long walks that Dad is not able to do – so that she will sleep through the night. It’s part of a deal I made with her. Writing the blog, udloading the video clips and making the movies average at least an hour a night. All these details fill up my day, but I am content because I have never spent this much time alone with my Dad. Despite his hearing loss, lapses in memory, and a little bit of confusion on the roads, the time is beyond valuing.

Thought for the day: Overall, I have been impressed with the road-bike worthiness of the roads of Wisconsin, but singularly unimpressed by those of Illinois.