Quincy to Pleasant Hill  – 48 Miles

I’d mapped a fairly easy way to depart right from the hotel and rejoin  the MRT when we got close to the river.  We posed for our departure photo and then hit the road.

We had a few miles of fairly good riding before we turned onto HWY 57.  That was exciting… No shoulder and pretty much non-stop grain or gravel trucks flying by at 55-60 miles per hour.  I will say that other than one truck that didn’t have much wiggle room due to oncoming traffic (and who’s side mirror came alarmingly close to my head causing Mike to see my life flash before his eyes!) the drivers were extremely courteous to us.  If conditions allowed, the trucks often slowed down a bit as they passed us.  I wish I had gotten a picture of the road conditions, but for about 20 miles it was a death grip on the handlebars!  

We finally reached a place where a majority of the trucks seemed to be turning onto the interstate on ramp we’d pedaled past.  After that spot the highway got quieter -although there was still truck traffic.  And still no shoulders. 

Our first break was a “roadside break” since we hadn’t seen any parks, gas stations or restaurants for miles.

About five miles or so after our roadside stop, we passed through a small village.  We stopped at a little cafe to ask if there was a park with public restrooms in town?  They weren’t busy for the day yet and the ever-so-kind young lady in there said we could use the cafe’s restrooms.  Thank heavens!

Eventually we moved onto a smaller road closer to the river that went for miles with no turns for us.  Once again we had a determined headwind to fight against. It was so low traffic that it started to feel almost like a bike path – but slightly uphill and no relief from the constant pedaling.  Fields and more fields.

And the occasional abandoned house.

For the first couple of days, Mike had been suggesting (in his “dad” voice) that I shouldn’t take photos while in motion like I usually do.  And considering the conditions for the first couple of days, I wasn’t crazy enough to take my hands off the handlebars to do that!  But today, I did take one or two behind Mike’s back… hah.

Mike being passed by a gravel truck. As you can see no shoulder, but the driver gave us a lot of room as he passed.

About seven miles before our destination (a gas station along the route), Nicky was waiting at a corner to see us pass by. We stopped there for a quick break with her before finishing up the day.

Those last seven miles were a struggle.  It hadn’t been an easy day and we were quite ready to be done with it.  We’d arranged to have Nicky meet us at a Shell station in a small town called Pleasant Hill.   She was there patiently waiting to get a picture of us as we rolled in.  Mike and I chose different entrances to the gas station and I hit some bad pavement so hard that one of my water bottles (kept on my rack pack) flew through the air.  It wasn’t the first time (lots of rough roads so far) and, as it turned out, not the last time!  Mike usually rides behind me and he’s in charge of both ducking when the bottle flies and picking it up off of the road for me!

The nearest (and only) hotel within a reasonable shuttle distance for us was in Louisiana, MO, which was about 15 miles away across the Mississippi River.  The hotel was right at the river’s edge and surprisingly nice for being an older “motor lodge” style hotel -the kind where you park the car in front of your hotel room door.  The room had to be rearranged a bit to make sure our bikes would fit in there.  If it came down to not having enough room for the bikes and Nicky both – well I’m sure she would have been OK sleeping in the car.  HAH!

Louisiana was founded in 1816 and was an early Mississippi River shipping port.  The town has preserved its historic downtown, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  But with a population of only around 3,200 people, it doesn’t have much in the way of stores and restaurants.  There aren’t any convenient larger towns nearby either.

When I was figuring out this trip, I’d tried to make Hannibal, Missouri one of our stops -but the mileage didn’t line up right for that.  We rode on the Illinois side today, passing the turnoff for the bridge to Hannibal around the halfway mark.  Since Louisiana didn’t offer much in the way of restaurants, we agreed that we could go to Hannibal (about 30 miles away) for dinner and a quick walk around their historic downtown.

The car GPS routed us onto the MRT route between Hannibal and Louisiana on the Missouri side of the river.  It was a much prettier road than we’d ridden today, but seeing the hills and twists and turns had me congratulating myself for not choosing the Missouri side. I’d picked the Illinois side because, according to the guide book, it was less hilly than the Missouri side.  Anyone who’s read this blog knows that I strongly dislike hills -except when we can go down them!

It is hard to really “see” hills in photos -but I think you can tell that this one is a long uphill battle.  To be fair, we would have ridden down this hill -but we would have had to climb something similar coming from the other side.  It was either up or down the entire trip to Hannibal.

Hannibal, Missouri is best known as the boyhood home of Mark Twain.  Both The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were based on Mark Twain’s childhood memories there.  The historic area of Hannibal was a tidy few blocks with charming old buildings and a mix of stores and restaurants.

They have several murals around the downtown area.

I thought this building was very interesting.  We enjoyed exploring the store too.

You can’t visit Hannibal without looking for Tom Sawyer’s famous fence.

This is Becky Thatcher’s house. The character of Becky was inspired by a girl named Laura Hawkins, whom lived across the street from Mark Twain and was a childhood friend and sweetheart of his. Hannibal has a very cute tradition that started in 1956 where every year, a competition is held among 7th grade students to win the role of portraying the characters of Tom and Becky.  The winning pair then spend the next year acting as goodwill ambassadors for the town.  They make as many as 300 appearances during their time as ambassadors.  This is something we’ve experienced ourselves when our Rumble group (paddling trip) landed in Hannibal and were all met by Tom and Becky at the shore.

This statue of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn was installed in 1926.

After our walk, it was time to eat.  I might have to confess that we were bamboozled by the charming mural (below) and ate at LaLa’s… for better or worse.  After dinner, there was a bit of room left over for some ice cream – always a good idea!.

It was getting late and we were anxious to head back to the hotel.  It seems like we always have 1,000 things to deal with after our ride before we can call it a night -and we hadn’t even gotten started on anything yet.  Luckily, on the way back, I realized we could drive on Highway 61 -the Great River Road- and get back faster.  So we did, which helped.

Categories: MRT Bike Trip 2018, 2022 & 2026, Quincy, IL to Pleasant Hill, IL