Sharpshin

Rural Northeast Arkansas/Southeast Missouri: Evident meth problems and a generally unfriendly population, or enough unfriendly folks to get your attention. Evident methamphetamine abuse. One town I was actually warned to be out of town by dark. I was warned that extreme Southern Illinois was also pretty bad and so rerouted my crossing place over the Mississippi from Cairo IL to Cape Girardeau MS.

Delaware OH, about thirty miles north of Columbus. I had intended to stay over a day and update my blog. A nice-looking little town, a nice old downtown, I set up shop in a coffee shop to get updated on my blog. Turns out there was a MAJOR heroin problem there, obviously sold on the sidewalk out front, only slightly less obviously sold right inside the coffee shop. I set out late afternoon and did thirty unplanned miles just to get clear of the place.

Mike

shipwreck

There is meth EVERYWHERE. Some places just hide it better. At least no one tried to buy it from you, that has happened to me before outside of a Dollar General in Missouri while I was on a tour. Really crazy tweaker who thought I was lying and got really angry. I got out of that town as fast as I could.

I wonder if there is any difference in how a group or family is treated than a single guy, since I have always toured alone. When I read about people smiling or offering water, asking if you are ok its cool, but I have seldom gotten anything like it. Once a woman told me where the homeless shelter was as I looked at a map on a street corner in Moline Il, and I guess that that was pretty nice of her(I was on a nice bike, matching panniers, and I keep well shaved and groomed while touring). Another time heading into a terrible, and I mean forty mph all day terrible headwind a guy pulled over and asked if I was OK. his cycling club had canceled their ride because of the winds, and he wanted a picture of me to show everyone.

I have taken ice cream to cross country cyclists in youth groups when they stop in my home town. They have seemed grateful. And I have given tubes and patch kits to the occasional tourer who needs them. Things that I think would have been nice if they had happened to me on the road.

bikenh

[QUOTE=Sharpshin;19069433]Delaware OH, about thirty miles north of Columbus. I had intended to stay over a day and update my blog. A nice-looking little town, a nice old downtown, I set up shop in a coffee shop to get updated on my blog. Turns out there was a MAJOR heroin problem there, obviously sold on the sidewalk out front, only slightly less obviously sold right inside the coffee shop. I set out late afternoon and did thirty unplanned miles just to get clear of the place./QUOTE]

Gee I was in Delware a couple of years ago. Didn't spend the night there but wouldn't have thought a thing about it. I wander how many other places I've spent the night that has had a bad drug problem. It makes me question it now.

Doug64

I think you raise a good point. I believe that when my wife and I tour together, the interaction with people is different than when I toured solo. However, I have experienced several acts of kindness when solo, just not a consistently as when touring with my wife. I think a solo male is also treated different than a solo female. It is not good or bad; it just seems to be the way folks react to cyclists or people in general.

BigAura

I've basically always toured alone and every tour I have experienced kindness from strangers. You guys need to smile more

Sharpshin

I live and work in the big city, the next door neighbor's house was shot at a few years back on account of off-the-front-lawn drug sales (we slept through it), plus I teach in a lower-income big city high school. Every high school kid in America has access to illegal drugs. Heck, back in the 70's I was a suburban New York high school kid myself, and drugs were everywhere even back then.

My point was that, even given all that, when riding through NE Arkansas, SE Missouri and to some extent Southern Illinois the evident drug culture among rural folks, mostly White in these areas, was a cause for concern.

Mike

Squeezebox

A lot of meth being cooked in SE Missouri.

Sharpshin

[QUOTE=bikenh;19070028]Ya, and this was a decidedly Middle Class-appearing area, and the buyers and sellers I saw were all White.

During the hours I sat there, two apparent junkies, college age, separately came and sat at my table to "talk" for awhile. It was apparent that, from their line of questioning and distracted demeanor, that both were trolling to see if I somehow might be instrumental in them obtaining their next fix. When it became apparent I wasn't they left.

Later on a clean-cut looking guy of about nineteen came into the coffee shop, he said loudly to a friend that he had just been released from detention in the local jail. After a loud and animated conversation on his part, a probable dealer of like age at one of the tables quietly passed him something small. The recipient thanked him effusively and then literally ran out of the coffee shop and ran down the street as fast as he could. I could only assume to either shoot up or purchase the means to do the same.

As I mentioned this was right downtown, the area did not look in the least run down. And two guys in plain sight through the window were hanging out on the sidewalk, periodically walking up the windows of cars that stopped. Pretty much the way drug-dealing looks just about anywhere, including on my street.

In that setting it was just surreal.

As I recall when I couldn't take it anymore I left late in the day and rode on NW to Mt. Gilead?? State Park where I camped for the night. FWIW the store clerks I asked at a Dollar Store close to there informed me that Delaware in particular was notorious in that area for junkies.

Mike

Booger1

Come to lovely SoCal.....

Anywhere south of Santa Barbara your a bum first....Until proven otherwise....

South of L.A.,you ARE a bum...Proven or not.....

South of Dana Point....You shouldn't even be on OUR road....

At Oceanside,I can't even ride on the road....I MUST RIDE ON THE FREEWAY!!...it's MUCH to dangerous to ride through the Marine base without a helmet!....BUT I"LL BE FINE ON THE FREEWAY!

If I do hit you,I'm saying I'm sorry now....Because I'm much too important to stick around to see if you actually survive....I think I left the water running in Mexico!

Come to L.A.----We LOVE you!

indyfabz

+1. Just started a tour south from Brattleboro a week ago last Saturday. Made a bee line for MA first thing in the morning after a cup of that Green Mountain swill you guys call coffee. Saw so many "Feel the Bern" stickers on Subaru's that I almost puked it back up. I'll take M*******s over people from Ver-mont any day.

indyfabz

[QUOTE=Sharpshin;19070382]I think some people's perceptions of what they recognize and fear is influenced by what they expect from different areas. Back when I crossed the country in '99 with a small group we camped in the town park in Ione, WA, which is maybe 50 miles west of the Idaho panhandle on the way to Sandpoint. Small, quiet town that looked working class. I noticed the following happen several times while we were hanging out: A guy would pull in to the park with a pickup. A few minutes later, another car would enter the park and pull along side facing the other direction. An exchange would be made and the pickup would drive away first. Being from the "big city," I immediately realized what was going on. No one else in the group did. Fast forward to Cleveland, OH. Only myself and one other person felt safe enough to take the Emerald Necklace tour through Cleveland, Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights, which was actually quite nice.

shelbyfv

Hate to hear all this about southern MO. We're planning an RV trip there in a couple of weeks, supposed to be some trout streams. Guess we'll be OK in the state parks. They should legalize meth and let these morons fry themselves. Natural selection.

FarmPond

Riding on old Highway 20 was essentially a death wish!!! That stretch of road was basically unfit for driving as well. It's all been replaced by 4 lane.

If you were riding the highway 20 area there are plenty of good county blacktops in the area that are great for riding.

Sharpshin

Wow, those look just like the "A" roads in England, except that they are straight, and there ain't any stone walls or dense hedges crowding those white lines......



.....and its not raining.

mstateglfr 

Wow, if thats US20, then they chose about the worst road to ride. Not just in terms of pavement condition, but just in general. Why take US20 when there are dozens of quiet county highways with good pavement that can get you to whatever town you want.

Odd route decision.

Doug64

My wife and I had 2 touring goals in 2007: ride Highway 20, the longest contiguous coast-to-coast highway in the U.S. from Newport, Oregon to Boston, Massachusetts ; and complete it it in the time frame that we had arranged to be away from our jobs, 11 weeks. We did it averaging a little over 50 miles/day for 74 consecutive days fully loaded. We agreed before the start to ride on the actual highway where we felt it was safe and where it was legal. We come from a mountaineering background and are somewhat goal orientated. Serendipity was the name of the game on this ride.

Our tools for navigating at the time were, paper road maps, and google map if we could get access to a computer at local libraries. The first Apple iphone did not come out until 2007, and Google maps for mobiles did not come out until 2008. You hear folks complaining about the data on Google maps now, just think about the accuracy of the data in the early days when it was just starting. My point is that state road maps did not have enough detail to show all those nice alternate roads, and we did not want to carry all the maps required to display that much detail. We could not pull out our phone, go to google map, Ride with GPS or Map My Ride; and click on bicycle mode to get the location of suitable nearby roads.

We believed that we were pretty experienced bike tourers, and felt comfortable in most of the situations we encountered, even Highway 20 in Iowa. We did utilize alternate routes that were obvious, and that we were confident they were going where we wanted to go.

FWIT, we do use our smartphones, GPS, and all the available data sources to plan our recent tours.

"Old"Highway 20, Iowa, was pretty quiet, but this section was pretty short.

mstateglfr 

Ha, well here is a tip- dont judge car traffic for all of California based only on what you see during rush hour on I5 or 405 near LA.
Based on your posts here, i could see you coming to that conclusion.

Doug64

You are entitled to your opinion. Thanks for the tip

ct-vt-trekker

You're kidding right?
I've found the exact opposite. 3 week-long plus tours the last 3 years, the last we just finished last week. Vermonters are some of the friendliest people and most courteous drivers of any of the 32 states we've ridden in. Any chance you had a Trump shirt on?

VT_Speed_TR

What we really dislike are flatlanders with no sense of humor!

jonc123

mstateglfr.....

Spent the weekend in your neck of the woods (Des Moines, IA). Started out early Saturday morning and finished up Sunday. This is about a 95 mile loop or so. Here it is below, I just put the black loop in quickly to show the route of the trails I took.

jbell_64

I really like the area around Cassville. Some nice streams and tons of great gravel roads.

mstateglfr 

Very cool! Great weather overall. Ive been on all the trails you used, not sure if the Neil smith along the des moines river was in decent shape?...have been on it in a couple months and they closed it earlier to repave parts.

Where did you stay overnight?

jonc123

Neil Smith was closed in a couple places due to flooding, it was an easy getaround. I only took that as far north as up near Oralabor RD, then headed East.

I camped at Whistlin' Donkey Sports Bar & Campground in Woodward. Didn't know what to expect, but the campground was great if you only needed a nice quiet place to pitch a tent.

I didn't encounter anything annoying as far as the trail surface went, I thought it was pretty good. Lots of detours in downtown Des Moines due to construction. Did get to cross the river on the nice Iowa Women of Achievement Bridge which is a work of art. Caught the farmer's market also, pushed my bike around and checked out some of that. Biggest farmer's market I've ever been to.

Only had 20 miles or so back to my truck, Sunday morning. I left Woodward and headed south on some gravel roads to my truck parked at the trailhead where the two legs of the Raccoon Valley Trail come together. It's in front of a mulch place & car dealership.

The only thing I wished I had done was have breakfast at Mullets, but I had already eaten.