Dubuque to Rockford
 

Crossed the Mississippi River this morning!!! Hooray!!!

We debated the different options and I went ahead and took Hwy 20 all the way to Rockford. 103 miles with about 4100' of climbing. Felt an awful lot like the hills I ride from my house in NC. Went through some neat towns, Galena, Elizabeth, Freeport, etc. There were good shoulders for all but about 15 miles of the route where I had to ride the white line.

Weather was a bit of everything. Pleasant start, then overcast, drizzle, fog, heavier rain and finished in warm sunny skies. I changed into a dry jersey and gloves at lunch. Nice to have SAG!!!

Some good hills out of Dubuque and Galena. But I also got to coast some today. Ahhhhh.

I'm betting Iowa has as many CDL drivers per capita as any state, just based on the number of trucks that passed me. Someone want to check that statistic for me??? Also appeared folks enjoyed their cigarettes...


Yeah!!

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Rideable passageway

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Barge going upriver

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State #7!!
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Galena, very scenic and historic town. It once had 15,000 residents to Chicago's 5000.

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Grant's house

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Climbing out of Galena to Eagle Ridge. Very dense fog.....and hills

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Main St in Elizabeth

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Invited this fella to ride with me. Pretty quiet guy.

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Yes, the NW corner of Illinois is scenic with hundreds of miles of good cycling.

Downtown Freeport

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Funny! I ran into that same guy last month and tried to start up a conversation but he never spoke a word. Just stood there waving. So I went across the street to eTown Coffee and had me a nice cappuccino.

Nice work! Yes, there's a lot of truck traffic through Dubuque. It's kind of a funnel for getting stuff in and out of Wisconsin.

go man go!

Careful jppe
you are approaching the crowded 1/2 of the country soon.