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“Taking the Scenic Route” Jacksonville, Illinois Journal-Courier Article – June 7, 2019

Published June 12, 2019

I, Bernie Harberts, did not use generative AI to write or illustrate this article. Spell check and grammar check, yes. AI, no.

The Jacksonville, Illinois Journal-Courier ran a piece by writer Shirley Bilyeu about my mule ramble through the region, timed to my stop in Meredosia.

Bernie Harberts standing with mule Cracker outside the Meredosia, Illinois post office — Bernie Harberts stands with his traveling companion, a 12-year-old mule named Cracker, outside the Meredosia post office. (Shirley Bilyeu photo)

The article covers my two-month journey from Lenoir, North Carolina to Meredosia, riding mule Cracker and packing gear on mule Brick, en route to visit my wife’s family in Idaho. Bilyeu touches on my earlier travels – cycling Tasmania, walking Newfoundland with a mule, and sailing from the Falkland Islands to South Georgia and on to South Africa – along with my book Too Proud to Ride a Cow, about an earlier 3,500-mile mule journey.

The piece also gets into the flooding I encountered in Meredosia, describing the town as held back only by “a dirt levee topped with sand bags and hope”, and notes that the bridge I’d planned to cross from Illinois into Missouri was impassable due to flood waters. It closes with my next stop: Quincy, and a crossing of the rain-swollen Mississippi into Missouri.

You can read the full article at the Jacksonville Journal-Courier.

More adventures by horse and mule: Travel by Horse and Mule.

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