Today we reached the Mississippi River.  What a huge milestone.  It represents many, many footsteps since Atlantic City – some pleasant and others difficult.  But we did it!  We continued walking through Clinton, Iowa.  Our walk went through both some depressed downtown areas and some really beautiful biking/walking trails on the outskirts of town.  We ended up, again, in the cornfields.  It’s up in the air whether we walk our last two days.  The sole of Mike’s left foot is raw and they are calling for severe thunderstorms both of our remaining walk days.  It will be a game day decision tomorrow.

We decided not to walk on day two and drove to Davenport to look for new hiking boots for Mike.  He was in too much pain to chance more damage to his feet.  It turned out to be a successful trip – we got new boots and got a rare opportunity to do sightseeing off of our planned walking route.  The Quad Cities area is beautiful this time of year – everything is in bloom and green.  Surprisingly, several of the towns have a Victorian/New England vibe, and equally unexpected when you think of the cornfields of Iowa, around the Mississippi there are acres of real swamp land.  Who knew?  Tomorrow we will attempt our last walk.

What a nice way to end our second trip.  May 12 had near-perfect weather, wind at our back, good walking surface, and new boots for Mike.  Our route led us to the nice little town of DeWitt.  We ended up walking at a fast pace to beat the threatened thunderstorms (that never arrived) and are looking forward to two weeks rest.

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After a day of doing our laundry and resting, we were back at it.  A little too warm and sunny, still not much to see, but Route 30 is flat and has wide shoulders so walking was easy.  We literally walked within a block of our hotel – fortunately need the end of our 12 miles so we weren’t too tempted to take a detour.  Had a great dinner and are hoping for cooler weather tomorrow.

Day Two – walked through the rest of the town of Rock Falls (a nice town) and then back out to  farm land.  A nice walk except Mike’s feet are really bothering him, despite being covered in bandaids.  Time for new hiking boots.

On Day Three, we started in the corn fields and walked through the pretty little town of Morrison.   The area between the Rock and Mississippi Rivers is more lush and green.  And the cherry trees and lilacs are in bloom – every once in a while we got a nice whiff of lilac as we passed by.

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What a difference two weeks makes in terms of temperature.  Today was in the 80’s and, for the most part, sunny.  My one complaint (which Mike heard for at least 2/3 of the way) was that the wind was fierce – sustained 30 miles per hour in our faces.  I swear I was bent double just to move forward.  Not my favorite scenario – but it’s another 12 miles done and a valuable lesson learned: always put sunscreen on my face because the wind causes my sun hat to morph into a useless tri-corner wind sock.  On the plus side, our feet appear to have toughened up.  Many fewer blisters!

Our second day included nice walking weather (low 70’s, mostly sunny and a slight breeze), more interesting scenery and almost no traffic.  In fact, on the last half of the walk we had a country road all to ourselves – not a car in sight.  My feet are blister free but Mike has PTT (prototypical tootsie trouble – a “Mike”ism – this is what he spends his walking hours thinking up).  We had two different cars stop and ask if we were okay.  Friendly country folks in this part of the country.  The severe thunderstorms have held off until we were safely back at the car both days, for which we are most grateful.

The third day was the best weather so far this trip.  Temps in the high 60’s, sunshine and just enough wind to keep us from getting too sweaty.  Today we had four encounters with Illinois natives – the Lee County sheriff, two road maintenance men, a farmer, and a guard dog.  All were very friendly, just checking to make sure we were okay, and provided a nice break to the monotony.  We have rejoined Route 30 – a quieter, more walkable 30.  The best comment of the day belongs to one of the road maintenance guys who told us that we were the oddest thing he has ever seen.  He might have been referring to the fact that we were lying on the side of the road soaking up some sun during our lunch break, or he might have been commenting on our unusual walking attire.  Either way, made me laugh.

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