Motorcycle riders look ahead at the weather constantly and hope for a day with a perfect 75 degrees. One of those occurred recently and my gaggle of “Mild Hogs” were ready to pop their kick-stands up and go for it on short notice.
Choosing to go southwest from our hometown of Greenville, the day was mostly to feel the open road and look at the beautiful crops growing everywhere we went. Along the way, we gained a dose of French history, beginning in the 1700’s at a fort along the Mississippi River; found good food in a small tourist town; learned the significance of cartoon character, “Popeye the Sailor Man”, to the county seat town of Chester; saw some awesome views of the Big Muddy at the Chester bridge; and were overwhelmed by the spectacle that is the Grand American trap shooting event near Sparta. A ride just doesn’t get any better than this.
The Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail (KCT) Road Rally – Sept. 10, 2022
Our first discovery of the day was that the thirty miles we were traveling from Fort de Chartres to Chester was the most southern portion of the KCT. The KCT is also known as Illinois’ First Road and it traverses 60 miles of the American Bottoms (Mississippi River bottoms) from Cahokia on the north to Kaskaskia Island (across the Chester Bridge on the Missouri side).
Around 1699, the French settled in this region and established settlements at Kaskaskia and Cahokia and they used thousands-of-years-old Indian trails to travel back and forth between the two. Over time, forts were established along this route until the French left in 1763 after losing the French and Indian War and being forced to give up their claims to land east of the Mississippi River to the British by whom they had been defeated.
2nd KCT Road Rally set for September 10, 2002
Note: The 2nd Annual Road Rally (a self-guided tour) sponsored by the Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail Coalition will take place September 10, 2022 from 10:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
The self-guided rally will take participants from: Holy Family Church in Cahokia (register there from 9 – 11 a.m.) to the 1740s-built Cahokia Courthouse (the oldest in the state), to stops in Columbia and Waterloo, before descending from the bluffs to explore caves and caverns on the way to Maeystown. You’ll also have chances to see Fort de Chartres, several bars and restaurants in Prairie du Rocher, and the Modoc Ferry across to Ste. Genevieve, MO. Returning back to the Illinois side, you’ll come to the confluence of the two rivers, a lock & dam, and a second fort before arriving in Chester to look for the statue of Popeye and those of his cartoon friends.
A quick side excursion across the Chester Bridge to Kaskaskia Island, takes you to where the site of Illinois’ first state capital was located before the mighty Mississippi’s continual flooding and a channel change forced the capital to be moved up the Kaskaskia River to Vandalia in the early 1800’s.
Besides the colorful foliage of the river bluffs, there will be live music, food specials and a chalk art festival to hold your attention. The rally eventually circles back to its ending point at the Monroe County Courthouse in Waterloo, where you should check in between 4 – 4:30 p.m. This trip will pass through three Illinois counties: St. Clair, Monroe, and Randolph.
For exact details about the rally, go to: www.illinoisouth.org and find a feature story in the “Fall 2022 Tourism Times”. Advance registration for the event can be accomplished by visiting: www.kctrailillnois.org/roadrally. See you there!
As true motorcyclists, we meandered over about 230 miles at a leisurely pace and passed through five counties and 23 cities, towns, villages and hamlets, including: Millersburg, Breese, Germantown, Albers, New Baden, New Memphis, Mascoutah, Freeburg, Hecker, Red Bud, Ruma, Prairie du Rocher, Modoc, Roots, Ellis Grove, Chester, Bremen, Sparta, Marissa, St. Libory, Okawville, New Minden, and Carlyle.
Fort de Chartres State Historic Site
The “Mild Hogs” first stop was at Fort de Chartres, which was built in the 1750’s by the French, when they ran things in this part of the world. The fort has been rebuilt three times and has always been within a few hundred yards of the often-flooding Mississippi River, which was the main boulevard for travel in that time period.
The current structures were re-built in 1929 and had to endure the Great Flood of 1993, but today this facility is in excellent condition and has a museum, office and restrooms for your convenience. Put on your comfortable shoes because you will need to walk several hundred yards to fully appreciate this site.
It’s location is a bit off the beaten path and the village of Prairie du Rocher is the gateway from the south. Normally this is a quiet spot for picnicking, but there are, at least, four big events held here each year in April, June, November and December. Visit the first week-end in June for The Annual Rendezvous and you’ll experience period clothing, encampments and re-enactment activities. Go to: www.fortdechartres.us for updated information.
Lisa’s Market Street Grille – Prairie du Rocher, IL
A small town that has known its share of flooding problems, Prairie du Rocher is defended by levees and seems to be an ideal stop for tourists to ‘take on” food and drink. There are more choices than you normally find in a town this size and you will share them with motorcyclists, bicyclists, road-trippers and a variety of other tourist types.
Needing to pick a watering hole, we decided on a Lisa’s comfy looking establishment, which has been in business since 1988. On this day, her pleasant staff served up a stomach-warming Chicken “with mashed potatoes, corn and gravy” Bowl with a generous piece of warm apple pie. Lisa’s has a museum feel with its walls covered with local historical photos.
Two Rivers Confluence – Costello Lock & Dam
Another 10 miles south along the KCT is the confluence of the Mississippi and Kaskaskia Rivers. Just slightly north of that point is the Jerry F. Costello Lock & Dam. Follow the signs and take a back road about a mile to a walking path and you can poke around and get good views of both sites.
Popeye and Friends Character Trail – Chester, IL
We’d had enough of a French history lesson for one day and with respect for our schedule (we’re always running late), we passed on Fort Kaskaskia, the Menard Home, the infamous Menard State Prison and several other sites to go find Popeye. Those omissions just gave us reasons to return on another day to pursue the Chester Heritage Trail. You could easily spend a full day here.
Elzie Crisler Segar, a talented youth with a penchant for drawing, was born here in 1894 and after taking a mail-order cartooning course began to create characters for a project that would become, what he called the “Thimble Theatre”. The strips’ characters were drawn largely from people in Chester that he knew and watched from his catbird seat at the Chester Opera House (later a theater and still standing), where he began working at the age of 12.
Beginning in 1919, his stories were based on the mis-adventures of the Oyl family. It was not until 1929 that Popeye, the problem-solving detective, was introduced and he soon became the center of each of the plots and an icon. Popeye was created as a tribute by Segar for his fascination with Sherlock Holmes.
Unfortunately, Segar passed away in 1938 at the tender age of 43. However, others have been carefully chosen and commissioned to continue the comic strip over the years. The sailor man and his friends are celebrated at “Popeye’s Picnic”, a three-day event held annually the weekend after Labor Day.
The Popeye statue is located in Segar Memorial Park, which is also home to the Chester Welcome Center and is near the Chester Municipal Bridge. Nearly two dozen of his fellow-characters have also had granite statues erected and strategically placed around the city. They now form the Popeye & Friends Character Trail and it’s one you will enjoy following and you might even find a can or two of spinach.
On this tour, you will also find Popeye’s Hometown Shop and Museum and the Chester Opera House. You can also join the Popeye Fan Club and get a quarterly newsletter.
5. Municipal Bridge – Chester
The ferry, Belle of Chester, was the main means for crossing the Mississippi River from 1878 until the erection of the Chester Municipal Bridge in 1942. Unexpectedly, a tornado tore the two center sections from their piers and dumped them in the river in 1944. The bridge re-opened only two years later. It was city-controlled and charged a toll until 1988.
The bridge also made it into a movie, having a scene , “In the Heat of the Night”, which starred Sidney Poitier. The movie was set in the mythical town of Sparta, MS but was actually shot up the road in Sparta, IL. Because of racial tensions in the South in 1967, Poitier refused to participate if the movie was not shot north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Physically imposing, the bridge accommodates over 7,000 cars a day and is the only bridge between St. Louis and Cape Girardeau. The main span is 650’ long with an overall length of 2,826’. It stands 104’ above the water, but it is “tight” with only 22’ of width in which to squeeze two lanes. In the Great Flood of 1993, the river’s waters reached for 10 miles from bluff to bluff and the bridge remained closed for 68 days.
6. World Shooting and Recreational Complex – Sparta
Out of respect for one of our shooting “Hogs”, we made a planned stop at the 1600-acre World Shooting and Recreational Complex about 10 miles north of Sparta, just off of IL RT 4. We rode past trap shooting “stations”, each filled with four or five competitors and with the area behind them packed full of spectators in parked “side-by-sides”. I counted 28 stations with at least 50 yards between each one. My rough math tells me this range was almost a mile long. And there are ranges for several other types of guns available in the complex. (Think Cowboy fast draw. It’s an elimination competition, but they are not shooting at each other!) There are also several large buildings, including a welcome center and a trap shooting Hall of Fame, on the premises.
License plates on the vehicles revealed folks had come from every state. Several parking lots were full of campers and RV’s. I suppose shooting events are often held in remote areas and those really into shooting must be “self-sufficient”, because there could never be enough motel rooms close to the action. Considering the values of the $150,000 RV’s, the $15,000 side-by-sides and the $10,000 + shot guns we saw, I realize that I’ll be pursuing my hobby of cycle riding for a long time before I get into shooting.
Grand American Trap Shooting Championships
Little did we know that we had just “crashed” a very big party: The Grand American World Trap Shooting Championships! Turns out, this is the 123rd running of the Grand American, a get-together that draws thousands of die-hard shooters and runs for 10 days. I remembered a picture from our local paper that showed a local high school team had competed here in just the week previous to our arrival.
Then it all began to become much clearer for me. This is like the Super Bowl, World Series, Final Four or something of that ilk to serious shooters. Wow, sometimes when you travel, you just stumble into great events. See you down the road!!
