Inland

I was both anxious and hesitant to leave The Great River Trail. I knew as long as I stayed on the river, the trail would be flat. If I left the River to cut inland and avoid Moline because of time constraints, I ran the chance of slowing myself down by steep hills. More so, my legs were pretty tired from being out of shape. I didn't want to strand myself with an injury.

I had noted that in Albany I could take a fairlydirect road to Erie. In Erie, I could take another road that had one of the few bridges across the Rock River. This was important: the only other bridges were on Interstate roads.

Luckily Albany Road was a ridge road. Sometimes it's the surrounding roads that appear straight on a map that are hillier, as they attempt to ignore the landform.

I again became surrounded by expansive farmland. I didn't need to worry about falling into the torrents of the Mississippi.

I noted interesting farmland architecture.

At least interesting to me...

I enjoyed the monotony.

An old scale house.