Day 18: Friday, 05/25/18. Hannibal, MO to Keokuk, IA

Map of today's ride:

Distance of Today's Ride: 58.8 miles

Trip Total Distance: 1194.2 miles

Elevation Gain:  1161 feet

Riding Time:  3:35 hrs:mins

We left Hannibal, Missouri about 7:30 am and immediately crossed the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge into Illinois. We followed the Mississippi River north and crossed the Keokuk-Hamilton Bridge into Keokuk, Iowa where we are spending the night. This is as far as we will travel in Iowa as tomorrow we will be riding in Illinois again all day.  Wisconsin and Minnesota will be the final two States we will visit. Today, with the exception of the bridges, the majority of the ride was in the State of Illinois. We had a tail wind for almost the entire ride. There were light clouds the latter part of the ride but we did not encounter any rain.

This is the Bayview Bridge.  It is a cable-stayed bridge bringing westbound US Route 24 over the Mississippi River.  It connects the cities of West Quincy, Missouri and Quincy, Illinois.  Quincy Memorial Bridge serves Eastbound US 24.

We rode through a lot of "Big Sky" farmland today.

A pretty scene along the road we biked today.

All the roads were very lightly traveled today. This road ran along the Mississippi River for many miles.

This is a picture (from the Internet) of Midwest Controlled Storage.  We didn't stop as the air temperature in the vicinity dropped drastically so we kept peddling!  This operation offers a unique alternative to conventional warehousing and distribution.  Carved into the rocky limestone bluffs of the Mississippi River are subterranean caverns, an average of 100 feet below the earth surface.  The year round ambient temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit, provides an ideal atmosphere for product storage.

We were just approaching these tracks when this train stopped and blocked our path. After several minutes, they disconnected the rail cars and moved the train 
 to provide an opening so we could continue on our way. Pictured on the right is Wayne/Dad and on the left is Richard Hedges of the United Kingdom.

This is the view of Keokuk, Iowa from the middle of the Keokuk-Hamilton Bridge. An interesting fact is that the water tower appearing over the trees in the right side of the image is the second largest water tower in the United States.  It holds 4 million gallons of water and stands over 150 feet tall.  The tower was installed in 2011 at a cost of $7.2 million dollars.

Lock and Dam No. 19 is located on the Upper Mississippi River near Keokuk, Iowa.  In 2004, the facility was listed in the National Register of Historic Places covering 1,605 acres, 7 buildings, 12 structure and 1 object.  Major commodities moved include grain, aggregate, petroleum, coal and chemicals.  The present lock was put into operation in 1957 at a cost of $13.5 million dollars.  The lock is owned and operated by the US Army corps of Engineers.  

The dam in the background is owned and operated by Ameren Missouri.  It stands 10 stories above the top water level and runs almost a mile long.  Keokuk Energy Center and Dam near Keokuk, Iowa, is the largest privately owned and operated dam and hydroelectric generating plant on the Mississippi River.