Tour de Stooges

Highland, IL. The Tour de Stooges is a whimsical ride through southern Illinois. The roads are quiet and mostly smooth. There are few real hills, but there is 1300 feet of climbing. There is little real connection with the Three Stooges other than their image on the t-shirts. Highland is famous for PET evaporated milk and the Wicks Organ Company.

Near the ride start there's a monument to Heinrich Bosshard, a Swiss poet who wrote the poem "Sempacherlied" while living in Highland. Switzerland adapted Bosshard's poem into its national anthem, and erected a monument to their Francis Scott Key.

But small towns don't need anything famous to make them delightful. The drivers were friendly and the residents seemed to enjoy having a bunch of bright-colored weirdos riding around.

The ride organizers paid attention to the important stuff: well-stocked and evenly spaced rest stops and patrolling Sag vehicles that passed regularly. The after-ride food was tasty, but the after-ride entertainment did not appear. If you're going to skip something, skip that.

The wind blew strongly from the South all day. We started southbound, and struggled with the headwind. But, we all realized there was a flip side to that coin, and on the northbound legs you could really crank on some turns.

There were a few signs of this spring's flooding, especially as we passed low spots in the road near rivers and creeks. In some places the "Road Closed" sign had not yet been stored away, only moved aside. All the roads were open and dry, however.

I guess the most interesting thing that happens out there is the barreling freight train across the prairie. There were several railroad main lines out of St. Louis that move goods and freight to the East.

And now I have Illinois. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!