Biking Illinois :: Where the River Runs West

Ride 7: Where the River Runs West

Biking Illinois: 60 Great Road Trips and Trail Rides

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Rock Island, IL July 13, 2005

One of my favorite places to stay in Illinois while working on this book was the Motel 6 in Moline. The nearby gas station had a great barbecue/pizza joint attached to it. DJ's Ribs & Pizza made the great calzones I referred to in the Preface of Biking Illinois, as well as tasty barbecue pork sandwiches. Inevitably I could never choose between the two so I always ate too much.

This ride was not one of my best. It was the one time when I forgot to fully recharge my camera battery. Consequently, I didn't get to take as many photos as I would have liked. Plus it was a dull, gloomy day.

I started at Sunset Park on the Mississippi River.

After a short distance, the path led up onto the levee.

Any riverside path in a metropolitan area is a bridge lover's delight. This railroad bridge is the first of many railroad and highway bridges visible from the RiverWay.

A construction detour in downtown Moline complicated my mileage calculations. The project was supposed to be finished in September or October 2005, so it shouldn't affect readers.

The John Deere Harvester Works sprawl for nearly a mile along the path. Some workers use bicycles to get around.

This is the Mississippi River as seen near the John Deere plant above. Storm clouds threatened, but it didn't rain.

Beacon Harbor has bathrooms and water.

This old railroad depot is home of the Quad Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau.

A separate bicycle bridge leads from the RiverWay to Arsenal Island (this view is from the island side).

The clock tower is Arsenal Island's most prominent landmark.

Then my camera battery ran out of juice. I went on to explore Sylvan Island a bit, but you'll have to see it for yourself.

My new laptop had arrived by mail the previous day, so I drove home to pick it up. My well-worn Panasonic ToughBook Pentium II was headed for retirement. Along the way, I stopped at DJ's Ribs & Pizza to once again order more food than I could eat in one meal.