July 18, Chester, IL

I crossed over today. The Mississippi River that is. Chester sits on the eastern shore. As I rolled off the bridge over the full and churning river I was greeted by Popeye’s statue at the town’s visitor center. Chester native Elsie Segar created the spinach-eating sailor in 1929. According to local lore, Popeye was patterned after Chester resident Frank “Rocky” Fiegel, while Segar’s boss, William “Windy” Schuchert, was the man on whom hamburger-eating Wimpy was based. Statues of all the Popeye characters are sprinkled throughout the town. Naturally, there’s a Popeye Museum, an annual Popeye Picnic with a parade and almost every store in town tries to make some Popeye connection. The MacDonald’s has a large can of spinach hanging from the ceiling with green plastic leaves of the iron-rich veggie floating over diners’ heads.

Dee, Richard, a PE teacher from IN, and I left about 6:30 a.m. California John and Chris, who is from Reno, NV, the youngsters, were sleeping. The route took us through part of MO’s wine country. We passed two modest vineyards and then came upon a very large operation…Crown Valley Vineyard. They also had a new beer brewing operation a couple of miles down the road. Further down the road we passed a tiger sanctuary owned by the vineyard/brewery owner. Earlier we had passed the Farmington Country Club, which, in addition to the typical offerings of golf, tennis and swimming, was also a sanctuary for tigers. Go Mizo Tigers!

About 10:30 a.m. as the three of us took a brief rest on a hill, two young Brits going west stopped to chat. Bethan and David are recent Oxford chemistry graduates. Their American adventure is a last fling before “we get tied down with jobs.” As we talked the bright day turned into night. The winds picked up. Bruised-blue clouds hung down like a southern sheriff’s belly. Thunder rolled and lightening stitched the clouds. We beat a quick retreat to the porch of a house across the road. No one was home so we sat on the porch for 90 minutes before deciding that the rain had let up enough for us to all go our ways. Chris, the late riser, said the tornado siren sounded and electricity was knocked out in Farmington during the storm.

By the time we arrived at the Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie in Chester the sun was out. The Eagles have built a “bike shack” for cyclists to use free. The shack, a very apt description, has 9 bunk beds, an air conditioner and a chair. We use our own bedding. I was the first person to take a shower, which is about 50 yards away in a small room attached to the Eagles’ main building.

When I finished I tried to open the door but it wouldn’t budge. I pushed, pulled, giggled, put my shoulder to, and even kicked the door. It wouldn’t open. Is this the way my bike ride ends, trapped in a shower in Chester, IL? I banged hard trying to attract attention. Nothing. I picked up the shower bench and rammed it against the door several times. Finally, the door opened.

“Hey, I was trapped in the shower and you guys did nothing,” I yelled to my fellow cyclists. They looked at me like I was nuts, but John closed the door too and was trapped for a time.