Donating
Spares Needed!DAY 16 – Mississippi River Backroads Adventure 🌊🚴♂️
📍 Grafton, IL → Brussels Ferry → Calhoun County backroads
Met with a couple staffers from the office of U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
Nikki Budzinski, Illinois District 13 to discuss organ donation and the urgent critical kidney shortage. We met a Waffle House in their District.
Abe and McKayla offered to do whatever they can to help. Rep. Budzinski is especially concerned about veterans who need our help due to organ issues caused from their service to our country.
I also met with a staffer each from the offices of Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper of Colorado on the same topic the morning of the start of the ride.
We’re hitting up as many US Senators and Representatives offices through Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to share the END KIDNEY DEATHS ACT.
Today’s route turned into a true river adventure. Flooding along parts of the Mississippi changed the original bike route and forced a detour through some of the most remote backroads of the trip so far. Fallen trees, flooded paths, gravel roads, ferry crossings, and miles of quiet river levees made this one feel less like a ride and more like an expedition.
Mark crossed the Illinois River aboard the Brussels Ferry, a free 24/7 ferry operated by IDOT that connects Grafton to Calhoun County. Sometimes the best routes are the ones you never planned for.
Along the way, he passed historic markers dating back to 1673 when Marquette and Joliet first entered Illinois, rode levee roads surrounded by water and wildlife, and navigated debris left behind from Mississippi River flooding. Not exactly the smoothest cycling day… but definitely one of the most memorable.
✨ Fun fact: Calhoun County is considered one of the most isolated counties in Illinois because it’s surrounded by the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and is only accessible by ferries or a few narrow roads.
