Popeye's Birthplace

Mill at Alley Springs, Crossing the Mississippi into Illinois, Popeye, Little levee along Mississippi

This morning I'm in Carbondale, IL having a bit of a lazy start. If I ever get moving today I'll end up taking a ferry across the Ohio river into Kentucky at Cave in Rock, I'm guessing there's a big hole in a rock there but weird name for a town. I've made it out of the Ozarks a bit grueling although really enjoyable riding. Alley Springs turned out to be pretty neat, MO #1 tourist spot for photos and such on any MO tourist propaganda Alley Springs is on the front page. Heading through southeastern MO I began seeing many confederate flags....somewhat amusing as they're predominately flying in front of the most dilapidated ratty trailers I've ever seen and from what I can tell the people living in them are pretty angry. On the off chance that any toothless confederates are reading this I think bleeding gums, marrying your cousin and outhouses are really cool. I've also been getting chased by many confederate dogs an entire pack yesterday.....not sure what they feed them in these parts but they are amazingly speedy. Yesterday I crossed the Mississippi leaving MO into Chester, IL. Turns out that Popeye was born in Chester, IL a town that also claims to have sent out Lewis and Clark on their journey (they did cross the river from Chester), there are more statues and pictures of Popeye then people in Chester. I got a burger in Chester for lunch and tried out the "I'll gladly pay you the second Tuesday of next week for a burger today"....they did not find it funny and I left town quickly. After Chester I rode a portion of the levee system along the Mississippi. Where I was at it was comprised of three levees the closest to the river being the lowest which I thought was backwards. Each levee had huge valves about every 1/2 mile or so to regulate the water. In the picture above you can see the left side is still flooded and was unable to be planted while the right side is planted. This was the case the entire way on the outside set of levee resulting from the flooding a few months ago. I finished week 5 off on Tuesday at just over 3,000miles with about 1,200 more to go.