Crossing the Mississippi

Seven states down. Five to go. Today, on my last official day in the Navy and the ninety-first day on the road, I crossed the Mississippi River, leaving Illinois in my wake, and entering Clinton, Iowa.

I’d been looking forward to this geographic milestone, and I was ready to spend some quality time on the bridge over the main channel of the river relishing the moment and taking some well framed pictures for posterity.

One of the things you think about when planning a cross country walk is how you are going to cross large bodies of water. If you plug Newport, RI and Newport, OR into Google Maps and ask for walking directions, the first leg of the recommended course leaves Newport, Rhode Island on a ferry headed headed to Fall River, Massachusetts. This is because Google doesn’t recognize the relatively newly opened mixed use pedestrian and bicycle lane along the Sakonnet River bridge at the north end of Aquidneck Island.

The route will also take you into Canada and back down into Michigan with another ferry ride from Muskegon, MI to Milwaukee, WI.

Anyway, not wanting to lose any steps along the way, I had to figure out a route that got around or across these bodies of water.  Around is pretty easy. It just means a lot more steps. Across can be a bit of a challenge, but I was pretty sure I’d figured that out.

As I was planning, it occurred to me that I was probably going to cross some major rivers, and I might want to check out those arrangements as well. My first thought was the Mississippi, so I looked at the route and went down to the Google Street level view to check things out.

It looked great.  A bridge with a shoulder. No problem.

These assessments were made from the comfort of my desk with either a sufficient amount of heat or A/C to make the temperature just right. I was probably pretty well rested, and I had access to a ham sandwich and a nice cold beverage of choice in the refrigerator right down the hall. Once I was satisfied with my Mississippi river crossing, I never went back and looked at it again.

As I approached the bridge this afternoon, I thought, “You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Sure there was a shoulder. It was about two feet wide, and the only thing separating that narrow ribbon of asphalt from the eastbound lane of traffic was a poorly painted white line.  

I glanced over at the other side.  Same thing, but I wouldn’t be facing traffic. I thought back to my planning. I’d checked this out, right? Am I in the right spot? I consulted my phone.  Yep, right spot.

Apparently, due to lack of experience evaluating Google street level views in the early stages of the planning process, I’d greatly overestimated the width of the shoulder. I checked to see if there was another way across, and of course that option looked just as bad and would add another five or six miles to my planned daily total.

I glanced up the bridge again.  “Only one thing for it. Move forward.” I asked the Universe for a safe passage and stepped onto the rise of the bridge.

Needless to say, I didn’t dawdle a whole lot savoring the moment and snapping a great many pictures.  I did get enough of a break in the eastbound traffic to catch a few shots of, you guessed it, a train leaving Illinois and heading into Clinton, Iowa just to the south of me.

Train Crossing the Mississippi on a Swing Trestle - Clinton, Iowa

Having done what I could, I pressed on and scarcely over a mile and what seemed like an hour and a half later stepped back onto a land level sidewalk. There was a grocery store on the corner and I ducked in and sat on a bench next to the carts. I soaked up the air conditioning and let my pulse settle back into a more steady rhythm.

It was not the crossing I’d imagined, but it was a good one. Tomorrow the attempt to cross the first of the big five states begins, but right now the weather warning sirens are going off.  Google tells me that’s a severe thunderstorm warning with pretty high winds. I hope they judge weather better than walking routes. I think I’ll go check it out for myself.