And Forgive Us Our Trespasses
DAY 211 of connecting Statue of Liberty and Gateway Arch by Runyaking
October 24, 2023
I began DAY 211 by waking up before 7:00 am CDT. Back at home it is 8:00 am. I normally rise from bed at 6:00 am EDT, so I did sleep in two hours. As dark as it was it didn’t seem like it. The planned launch is three hours away, 10:00 am. My caffeine gauge is on empty so I head for the nearest Starbuck’s. That’s 13 minutes away in East Peoria, across the river. I’m back by 7:30, there is some daylight now so I can prep Swiftee for the days 9.7 mile paddle. Then I drove downriver.
I arrived at DAY 211’s landing, River’s Edge Campground, in the village of Kingston Mines, where area mines shipped coal a century ago. Two weeks earlier, before arriving, I contacted the campground to get permission to use their boat ramp. They seemed rude. They had sold the campground and wouldn’t give me a contact for the new owners.
At the campground I found a locked gate. Parked by the gate were three vehicles. Two with out of state plates. They’d been there for some time for they were covered with autumn leaves. Barge workers, I presumed. That’s because upriver last summer we had seen barge workers that would park, then be picked up by passing barges. Knowing they walked the 150 yards from gate to the river’s edge, I felt I could do the same. While walking to the river I could see several travel trailers parked on the grounds, but they looked abandoned. The campground looked quite rundown, it could aptly be renamed, Land of the Misfit Campers.
At the boat ramp, by River’s Edge’s river’s edge, I ran back to my van. DAY 211’s runyak was 150 yard complete, if nothing else. Kate soon arrived, she wanted to get a bike ride in, so we both parked our vehicles in the downtown streets of Kingston Mines. The entire downtown is four buildings, a fire hall, a bar called Blind Duck, post office/“City Hall,” and what was another bar but now a video gaming facility.
Eight states – Illinois, except for the Chicago area; Louisiana; Montana; Nevada; Oregon; South Dakota; West Virginia, and Pennsylvania – allow legal video gaming terminals in non-casino businesses, including restaurants, bars, taverns, convenience stores, truck stops, and other locations that sell alcohol.
While waiting for Kate I spoke to a male citizen of Kingston Mines. I asked if where I was parked was permitted. He said yes, that people park there to go gamble. He grumbled that the “city” had two bars but only one now, since the other converted to video gambling. It wasn’t nine a.m. yet but he walked as if he’d found an open bar somewhere.
Kate dropped me off back at the campground gate, where I had stopped running earlier, I began from there, and ran to the kayaks at Mendenhall Park. For 8 miles I ran on US 24. Yeah, the same US 24 whose terminus is in Clarkston, MI, and many think of as Telegraph Rd in Detroit.
Kate cycled past me enroute, and was at the kayaks when I arrived at DAY 211’s launch. She said she got a call from police that park rangers had contacted them about some abandoned kayaks. Abandoned? It had been less than three hours that they were left unattended. Rangers rummaged through our kayaks and found Kate’s contact and gave it to the police. It bugged me they thought we’d abandoned them after such a short time, that they felt they had to do something.
Kate asked if I had the key to the cabled and locked kayaks. Which I didn’t. I locked the kayaks up in the dark of night yesterday. Who know knows where the key is now. Somewhere in my van back in Kingston Mine is all I could think. (Or maybe a ranger took it when rummaging the kayaks?) Kate biked the 8+ miles back and searched the van in places I thought it might be. She called to tell me her search was to no avail. She put her bike in my van and drove back to me and the boats. I then looked in the van myself for the key but soon gave up.
The solution, I’d have to go buy a bolt cutter and cut the lock. A boater at the ramp told me Bartonville Hardware was just a few mile away. I drove there, purchased what was needed and was back in less than thirty minutes. The bolt cutter could not cut the lock, but it cut the cable as if it was butter.
We eventually were in the water and paddling. But it was after 1:00 pm. Two days in a row a 10:00 AM launch has become an afternoon launch.
One could say the cause of yesterday’s late start was on Kate, and today’s was on myself. But, Kate’s delay wasn’t because of her negligence as mine was. My attention deficit causes me to want to kick myself in the ass at least once every day.
We were in the water for nearly four hours. It was a beautiful autumn day on the river and the temperature was near 80 at launch. Were weren’t totally alone on the river. We were passed occasionally by recreational boats and a barge or two. Oddly, the small boats seem to create more wave havoc than the towboats with barges. One time, my bow was not in the correct direction, and I almost capsized because a speeding boat.
Toward the end of our paddle we had to make a plan as to where to land at River’s Edge Campground. We had some apprehension about landing at the boat ramp, since we never did get permission, technically we’d be trespassing. I’d done so in the morning, but saw nobody around. Had I seen someone I’d have plainly asked for permission. Now, late afternoon, who knows who we’d meet.
One great thing we’ve found is that on the Illinois, beach shoreline is plentiful. Seems 80% of the time, you could safely and easily get out of the water if needed from a kayak. It seems there are more places to land than when on Lake Michigan. The beaches seem to be there because of low river depths. Using Google Earth historical imagery, I could see that most of the beaches were not there eight years ago.
We decided to beach about a quarter mile from the boat ramp and hide our kayaks for the night in the bushes.
After doing so, unlike in the early morning, we did see a few people in the campground. They looked like campers, so we walked up to a young couple and talked to them.
They said their travel trailer and all others, had to be out at the end of the week. They were being evicted and were packing up after decades of being there. The man said he’d been coming to the campground since a kid with his parents. They weren’t alone, a couple other RVers we doing the same. After talking to the couple we felt more at ease about roaming the grounds, the owners obviously weren’t there. We walked to the boat ramp then took the shortest way to the campground entrance, and into the “city” of Kingston Mines to where Kate’s Surburban was.
Kate drove me back to my Pacifica at Mendenhall Park. We were then on our way for food and beer. Good timing, for it was 6:00 pm when we dropped in at Bearded Owl Brewing, seven miles back upriver in Peoria. We were at the same place back in July. The brew pub had good craft beer and grub, so decided to do it again. Our bartender was the same that we had before. And, she remembered us as the paddlers that were doing the entire Illinois River.
Back in July we discovered that Peoria had a great live music scene, so this time I found room in the van to pack my Martin guitar. Last night we went to a place called Neon Bison that had an open mic. The Neon Bison was pretty dead being a Monday night, so my guitar never left the van. Tonight after leaving Bearded Owl Brewing we decided to check out the open mic at a place called The Red Barn.
The Red Barn did not disappoint as the Neon Bison had. Aside from the host I was the second act to perform, so we were out by 9:30. It would have been nice to stay and heard others, but we’d have been up until midnight. Our schedule didn’t accommodate for that. So far, we haven’t had a morning launch yet, we wanted to be up’n at’em bright and early tomorrow. Actually dark and early.
I did four songs, a Gordon Lightfoot, an Ed Sheeran, a Dan Fogelberg, then ended with a Riley McLincha original. I apologized to the Peorians for doing the Dan Fogelberg. They probably hear the hometown legend musician’s music on a daily basis. But I, for the rest of my life, would have been kicking myself in the ass, for missing the opportunity to singing my favorite Fogelberg song, Leader of the Band, right there in Peoria.
The Red Barn was close to the Walmart that we camped at back in July, so we returned there to sleep for the night. I woke up a few times during the night by rain. It seemed to go on all night long. I was able go right back to sleep, but every time thinking DAY 212 might be a wet one.
Keep on Trucking 👍🏻😊
I enjoyed the read !!
Thanks for chronicle 211, another fun read.