After biking over 400 miles and staying up late playing with the boys, I would be lying if I said it wasn't hard to get up early in the morning. While in a sleepy haze, I got dressed into my stinky biking clothes. I was putting my knotted hair into a ponytail as I realized there was a formidable sound coming from outside. I walked to the door and opened it a crack. Yep! Sure enough, it was raining.
I was frustrated, but for the minute, I was relieved. I decided to crawl back into bed and check on the weather in an hour.
Grateful for the extra rest, I got up in an hour, still raining. This was not a light drizzle, but hard, down-pouring rain. There was no way we could sensibly ride. Some of the roads we had rode on were dangerous enough in bright weather with the trucks coming hard upon our backs and only a few inches for us to ride on the bern. To ride out in this weather was nothing less than suicidal. Frustrated, I surrendered for the moment and got on the internet to check out the weather forecast.
The entire day didn't look too promising.
I had set out on this adventure, to ride my bike from Kirtland, Ohio to Nauvoo, Illinois, a journey of 600 miles. I wanted to do it and I wanted to bike every mile of it.
But...I also wanted to go to the temple. Each day Todd and I had been pushing ourselves more and more miles so that we could make it in time to go to the temple on Saturday. The Nauvoo Temple is the one that Todd and I were married in and haven't been back to in years. Naturally, Nauvoo holds a special place in our hearts, but because it's a 10 hour drive, we don't make it there often. Plus, with not being able to be with my mom, dad, and sisters very often, I wanted to be able to see them a little bit more. And finally, I had missed my boys
One thing about our original plan that I was sad about was the fact that we were not going to be going through either Quincy, IL nor Carthage, IL. With the change of plans, we decided to drive the four hours to Quincy, bike the 40+ miles to Carthage that evening, then Saturday morning bike the 20+ miles from Carthage to Nauvoo. So, after breakfast we drove to Quincy.
In 1837 the early Saints (or members of our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) were residing in Missouri. While there some of the locals were concerned that the Saints would change things with their votes since there were very numerous in the area. Some of the locals started forming mobs and attacked and persecuted the Saints. These people also wrote letters to the state government, telling atrocious lies about the Saints. Not wanting to loose any political face, Governor Boggs issued an extermination order on October 27, 1837. This gave the Missourians the right to expel any "Mormon" from the state, and even kill them. With this, the Missourians were able to take the Saints' land, homes, goods, clothing, money, etc. (Since then, the state of Missouri has issued an apology for the way the Saints were treated and we forgive them whole-heartedly)
The Saints traveled to the south. They traveled with just the clothes on their backs. They had very few supplies and were traveling during the winter months. Because of the extreme water temperatures, they camped on the Missouri banks of the Mississippi river with a small town of about 1600-1800 citizens on the Illinois side. This community was Quincy, Illinois. The residents of Quincy saw the Saints, camping with very little and felt compassion. They went to the general store, they searched their own houses, then grabbed their canoes and brought goods and supplies to the Saints. When the Saints were finally able to cross the river, the residents of Quincy opened up their homes and hearts to them.
Knowing this great heritage of Quincy, I was glad that we were able to go there. We found a park that was on the banks of the river, played with the boys a little bit, let them ride their bikes around the parking lot, then we set out on our journey.
As my mom and I were riding out of the park, my dad asked Todd for help. We got about a quarter of a mile away and waited for Todd. After waiting 10 minutes, I called Todd. He had left the park, but had gone a different route. I explained to him where we were and continued to wait for him to catch up to us (like I have said before, he has a terrible sense of direction). After waiting for what seemed forever, Todd had still not shown up. I was getting nervous, we were pushing it already, there was barely enough daylight left to get to Carthage. I called Todd, it went to voicemail, so I left a message for Todd, telling him that we were going to go, that we didn't have enough time and that hopefully we'd meet up soon, plus I gave him the directions.My mom and I started heading out of town. We followed some main roads and finally came to a turn where we needed to get off a main road. Concerned that Todd wouldn't be able to spot the road while also being concerned that my mom wasn't a fast enough biker to have time to spare waiting, I gave my mom the directions and I sat on the side of the road. After waiting 10 minutes and constantly trying to get a hold of Todd, he finally called me. He was following his own directions and had gone more north than I currently was. I pulled up his location on my map, told him the directions to go to meet up with us later on SR 336.
I got on the 336 with still no sign of my mother. This was not surprising since I had waited at the corner for 10-15 minutes. But as I biked along, I was starting to feel lonely. I had been with someone the entire trip and now I was all alone. I was missing my mom, I was missing Todd, I couldn't wait to be re-united with them again. I kept an eye on the map, noting where Todd would be coming onto the 336. As I came to that particular road I was disappointed when I didn't see him, until I noticed his bright yellow shirt going across the overpass.
He came onto the highway about 100 yards ahead of me, I caught up to him and we were both so happy to be together again. We kept pushing the pedal though, for we knew we didn't have much time. After awhile we came upon my mom. We were all so happy to be re-united again.
As we rode, my mom started falling back. At about this time my dad came and pulled up next to us. My dad has an amazing sense of knowing how and where to find people, it's really uncanny. Seeing that she couldn't keep up, and that we were short on time, my mom said she was through, to just go on without her. I suggested that she have my dad drop her off 10 miles down the road, allowing her to have more time. She agreed and got into the car as Todd and I biked along.
We were having a great time. The weather was perfect, the scenery was beautiful, the sun was setting coloring the sky with different hues of pink, gold, and blue. Life was good, until Todd suddenly slowed to a stop. He had a flat tire.
We really couldn't complain for considering the distance we had covered, it really was shocking that this was our first flat tire; nonetheless, we stopped to fix the tire. I tried to help Todd a bit, I say "tried", not because I didn't know what I was doing, but because Todd was a little short with me when I was helping him (he later apologized). We changed his tire then set off once more. 500 yards down the road, Todd slowed down again. His tire had gone flat. Not having any more tubes and Todd's phone battery being dead, I gave Todd my phone, told him to call my dad and that I would see him at the Carthage jail and took off. I felt bad leaving Todd behind, but there was no way he could continue on that night.
Having the daylight grow dimmer and dimmer, I pushed myself harder and harder. I prayed that no one would pull off to the side of the road unexpectedly and that I would be seen for any cars that would be near me.
By the time I got to the turn off for the town of Carthage it was pitch black and I was more nervous than ever. At least on the 336 I had the entire break-down lane, but here in town there wasn't much room to the side of the road and riding a road bike was not an option for the sidewalks, especially since they were very poorly lit.
My bike didn't have a light on it and I was in a world of trouble. No light, no phone, dark, busy street with little/no side. I then remembered my mom's little flashing light. On the first day, on the first mile of our ride, something flew from my mom's bike tire wheel. It was a little light that clings onto the spokes. My mom was not impressed that the "cheep little thing" did not stay on that she told me to not worry about it. Instead I put it in my bike bag. I grabbed it out of my bag and held it in my hand as I rode along. It wasn't the best light, I'd have to press it every minute to keep it on, but it was a start.
I kept praying for protection and guidance, and feel that I got it. I was driving down a main drag and even though there were many cars going in the opposite direction, only two or three cars came from behind me, and I was on it for several miles. Later I was on that same road and there were just as many cars going that direction, but the 15 minutes I had been riding that, it had been pretty clear.
Then I was looking for the Carthage Jail. For some reason I thought it was on the right side of the road and kept looking in that direction. I came upon a gas station and felt prompted to ask for directions. Just as I was pulling up, some people were walking to their car. Upon asking for directions, they pointed up ahead, to a property on the left side of the street. I was very grateful that I followed that prompting for I surely would have missed the jail.
I rode into the dark jail parking lot and found my mom sitting on a bench. It was such a relief to be safe and together.
Now the history of the jail, for if you know me, you know I don't have a fetish about jails, is that this is where the first Latter-day prophet, Joseph Smith, was martyred, all while being promised the protection of the governor. It's actually quite a beautiful and peaceful place, and I was ready for the beauty and peace.
Saturday
Again we got up early to start our ride. My dad dropped us off at the Carthage Jail and we rode off towards Nauvoo. Now this was supposed to be only a 20 mile, quick ride, but it soon became a longer 30 mile ride.
As we went out from the jail, we went on some back roads. After awhile, we missed a turn-off - my fault, but hey, one mistake in 500 miles, not bad.
Then as we were riding, the road turned into a dirt/gravel road like the one I encountered the day before. The only difference was that this one went on for a lot longer of time. It got so bad that we had to walk our bikes for we were just spinning our wheels in the dirt. After many detours because of these roads, we finally got on a much nicer road that took us to the north of Nauvoo.
As we pulled up to the temple, I was almost expecting a marching band to be performing a celebratory song for us, but instead it was just us and someone doing some maintenance work down the road. No one was aware of the feet that we had just accomplished. No one was celebrating with us....and that was okay. We were happy, we were celebrating, we were in awe of our own accomplishment.
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