I was excited to be catching a Ferry across the MR to Hickman, KY today. Something to get excited about and ride for.
I left my nice camping spot and continued on Hwy 61 to Benton. There I picked up 77 toward Charleston, it was very windy!
I got to Charleston at lunch time. As I was eating I was checking the website for the Ferry, it said it was running. There was a phone number but I didn't call, just trusted what I read on the website.
After finishing lunch I set out to meet up with the Ferry. The wind was brutal! It took me over 3 1/2 hours to reach the Ferry Dock. When I got there I found someone else checking on the Ferry as well. We called the number listed and a recording said that due to high winds the Ferry was not running today. Not happy! Not happy with myself for not calling the number when I was in Charleston for lunch.
I looked for a place to stealth camp but wasn't comfortable with anything I saw. The only place that seemed ok did not afford me cell service and I didn't want to be out of touch with Celeste for the evening and night. I ran into another cyclist in the same situation, he was just going to camp at the Dock and hope for the Ferry to run the next morning.
What to do? I realized the best thing to do was to backtrack to Charleston and find a hotel. The only upside to the backtracking was that the wind pushed me all the way. What took 3 1/2 hours to cover into the wind only took 1 hour and 45 minutes with the wind.
Celeste found me a decent hotel so I checked in, settled in and got cleaned up. I was tired and frustrated with myself so much that I began to question why in the world I was out in the Midwest riding a bike down a river. My eye was off the prize. Fortunately a conversation with Celeste got me refocused and back on track.
I took some time to plan for the next day. Since the probability of high winds were likely I decided to turn east and cross the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers into Kentucky.
