day 21: moline to galena, illinois 93 miles

oy!  part 2

you know you're in trouble when people make faces as you tell them you're biking to galena.  three different times yesterday, people at our hotel asked us about our bike ride.  they were genuinely curious about where we've been, why we were doing this and where we were headed.  whenever we mentioned galena as our final destination, we always got the same response.  it was never an initial verbal expression.  instead, it was always that kind of cynical smirk.  their eyes would roll, their mouths would purse, and their expressions would convey that kind of "oh god, you poor bastard" look.  "good luck with those hills," they would finally add.

galena is a small town near the southern border of wisconsin.  it got it's name and start from the lead mining in the area.  it was also the home of ulysses s. grant.  today, it's a beautiful little town with a perfectly preserved downtown area, dating back to the civil war era.

today was a case of two halves.  this morning, we spent the first 50 miles on bike paths along the mississippi.  and it was raining.

morning rains along the mississippi river bike path

this afternoon was sunny and warm. and all hills.  long, steep hills.  the consensus among the riders was that today was the hardest day we've had on this trip.  the hills were among the steepest and the longest we've climbed to date.  and we got hit, over and over again, with one hill right after another.

we climbed two 15%+ hills and one 21% killer hill right outside of savanna

there were some gorgeous vistas from the ridge line we rode on, but none of the pictures from my smartphone were able to capture the true beauty of the panoramas.  and, given my desire to finish before sundown, i didn't stop as often as i would have liked to capture some of those images.

silos outside of galena

tomorrow as we enter wisconsin, we'll have more hills, but we'll not be climbing as steeply as today.