19 Ferries in 48 Hrs

19 Ferries in 48 Hrs

Rordog, a fellow Missouri ADVrider inmate posted about him running into this fella that was doing some sort of Ferry crossing ride in a short amount of time and a lot of miles. He posted the link to this guys ferry attempts so I took a look. Wow.. this looks like a pretty cool ride.

His name is Steve Jones riding a Honda ST1300 from Sullivan, MO.  In 2008 he crossed 14 ferries in 36 hours, 11 of them in the first 24 hours.  You can read about his attempts on his website. What intrigues me about this ride is.. well… the ferries!

Living near major rivers here in the midwest, we have the opportunity to include ferry crossings in our rides.  Last fall I did a ride with a group of ADV’rs and we crossed two ferries on the return route.

The first ferry was the Brussels Ferry in Illinois. Brussels, which is free, crosses the Illinois River linking Route 100 to Calhoun County and the village of Brussels.

The second ferry we took was the Golden Eagle Ferry which crosses the Mississippi River between the small town of Golden Eagle in Calhoun County in Illinois and St. Charles County in Missouri. I think it was $4 for a motorcycle.

Something interesting I read about ferries is they help keep the river free of ice during the winter and the action of their propellers stun fish and help bring them to the surface. These fish become easy prey for Bald Eagles making the Brussels Free Ferry Area one of the prime bald eagle watching spots in the area. And of course, there is just something special about sitting on a motorcycle cruising across water on a boat!

Good luck to you Steve, I hope you hit that record and thanks for reminding us of how amazing ferries are.. I’m going to make sure I get out and enjoy more of them.

5 Comments
  • Chris Luhman
    Posted at 08:47h, 27 September Reply

    I’ve never been on a ferry on a bike. I might see if I can squeeze one in this year. We have three rivers within 10 miles, so one of them should have a crossing.

    I saw your WR loaded up on flickr… where did you end up going?

    • Basher
      Posted at 09:18h, 27 September Reply

      Well.. I haven’t left yet 🙂

      Stay tuned.. oh and I have a GoPro coming !!

  • Chris Luhman
    Posted at 08:48h, 27 September Reply

    just tried the ferry ride link and it looks like a broken link on: http://www.eattoride.com/ferry/

  • Steve Jones
    Posted at 02:11h, 07 April Reply

    Wow, I just accidentally found this blogpost – ironically while googling to find out what the heck “eattoride.com” was. LOL.

    Anyway, if anyone is interested I have a writeup my ferry ride at http://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,57387.0/all.html and yes, I plan to try to do a better job of the ride this year.

    Glad someone else found it an interesting ride.

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