Dispatches from Cape Girardeau

I got a later start on Friday than I had hoped. I left the house around 5:30am. The air was a little cool and damp, but it wasn’t too bad. It was still dark. Filled with trepidation, I pointed the bike west, and roared (well my bike sounds more like a blender – so I guess blended would be more appropriate) through Canton Ga. and out onto route 75. I took 75 to Chattanooga Tn. where I picked up 24 and continued west.

The first day’s travel was filled with some surprises; both good and bad. The bike is getting much better gas mileage on the highway than I have experienced during my local travels. I had expected a range of 30-40 miles per gallon. On the first day I got nearly 50 – awesome!

The bike handled well all day. I spent the morning gliding along at 80 miles per hour and covered the 360 miles to Paducha Kentucky in just under six hours. I pulled into the little river town sometime around noon for lunch. I spent about a half hour wandering along the river walk. There wasn’t a lot to see, but it was a nice break.

Like north Georgia, much of western Tennessee is in a severe drought condition. They have not had meaningful rain in Nashville in months. I could see the signs of the drought everywhere from the premature turning of leaves on the trees along the road to the fields full of stunted and brown corn. In stark contrast were the lands of Southern Illinois and Eastern Missouri. There everything turned lush green. They’ve had plenty of rain. In fact, they had over five inches of rain dumped on them yesterday alone. I’m sure glad I missed that!

Somewhere north west of Paducha I had my first piece of luggage blow of the darn bike. The big black tail bag has a barrel bag that fastens to it. The barrel bag holds quite a bit and it’s convenient because its easy to get inside it through a large Velcro flap. Unfortunately, the easy access design of the bag means the flap is aimed into the slipstream. Racing along route 24 at over 80 miles per hour I caught a glimpse in my mirror of my map bag flying out of the barrel bag opening. The bag was lost. In it was all my campground directions, reservations, and hotel information. #@!$#!!

I left the Interstate at Paducha and spent the next three hours making my way along Illinois back roads to Cape Girardeau. I rolled through half a dozen little towns and got lost several times. Route 162 threads through rolling hills full orchards, vineyards, and fields of corn.

Each time I stopped for directions, I seemed to get more lost. On the bright side, I get lost alot so I'm used to it, and I spoke to a lot of nice people at the two or three farm stands where I stopped for guidance. It was after three when I finally reached Cape Girardeau (I learned everyone there just calls it Cape) Missouri .

Cape Girardeau is significant for to me because of the role it played on the Cherokee Trail of Tears. The Northern route of the Trail of Tears met the Mississippi at a small ferry crossing about ten miles north of Cape Girardeau. The Cherokee reached the river in 1838-39 in the middle of a particularly harsh winter. The river was full of ice and they were stranded on both banks of the river until the spring thaw. Many died or wandered off. There’s still a large population of Cherokee near Cape Girardeau. The Cherokee encampment on the west bank was turned into Trail of Tears state park. I was unable to visit the park during my last ride. I was determined to reach it this time.

You get to the park by following route 177 ten miles north from Cape Girardeau. I got there about an hour before the visitor center closed. They have a little museum and a film. I’m pretty familiar with the history (probably too familiar) so I did not spend too much time in the visitor center. The real draw of the park is the overlook it provides from the great limestone bluffs that rise straight up hundreds of feet from the Mississippi. I rode out to the bluffs to see the father of waters. It was amazing!

I left the park at 6:00pm. I was more than a little concerned I would not reach my camp site before dark. It turned out I had nothing to be concerned about. I made it there with time to spare.