Before they walled it off on Tuesday, I had the chance to drive up the Great River Road for a peek at flooding conditions. You had to meander around barricades, but you still could get through.

Let me tell you, the River Road without traffic is an eerie scene, a cluster of concrete and nature coming together in ways that most of us never get to see.

For one thing I was struck by the number of waterfowl all along the roadway. Normally they’re skittish around cars, but with virtually no engines to spook them, the birds perched along the guardrail and roadway as though they owned it.

As if to accent my point a large duck stood in the middle of the road at the intersection of Clifton Terrace. He wasn’t moving, so I drove around him.

Bicyclists had already caught on and I was following in their tracks. Many bikers, knowing there were no vehicles about, boldly rode the middle of the highway — not the shoulder and certainly not the nearby bike trail, which by that point had already taken on water. Except on special occasions I’ve never seen bikers with such free access.

The Mississippi River gently lapped along the side of the road. When I drove it (Saturday morning) the water had not yet crept onto the cement. And the water was so still that debris was not even moving — a result, I suppose, of absolutely no boaters.

Now that the Illinois Department of Transportation has shut down Illinois Route 100 from Alton to the far side of Jersey County, most drivers won’t get the chance to see the River Road in the same way I did. That’s a shame. It was a natural perspective that I won’t soon forget.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 4:51 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.