Day 28 - July 1, 2013 - Harrisburg, IL to Carbondale, IL

Mileage - 38 (by bus!)

Soo...yet another day where we awake to pouring rain, and chance of thunderstorms all day long.  We really needed to get to Carbondale to keep on pace, and they have several bike shops to get the bikes tuned up.  With a little research via iPhone, we found out that there is a federally funded bus program in Southern Illinois, called and scheduled a pickup right at our hotel, and waited for the bus.  And these busses pick you up and take you to the larger cities for $2 a segment.  It cost $8 for both of us and our bikes to ride the 38 miles to Carbondale.  What a great program for the people who live there!

We got to Carbondale around 2, walked to a bike shop called The Bike Surgeon to drop the bikes off on the one employee who was a bit overwhelmed, but said he would give them a quick once-over, and set off in the rain to find lunch.  Carbondale is a pretty cute little college town.  We ate at a Mexican place, then found a nice vegeterian restaurant/coffee shop to pass a bit more time in.

We hadn't heard from the bike shop guy, so we walked back to find that he hadn't had much time to look at them, but he graciously gave them a quick tune-up for a very low price, and we biked a couple of miles back to our budget hotel.  After braving a four lane highway to get to Walmart and pick up a few necessary items, we headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Day 27 - June 30, 2013 - Cave in Rock, IL to Harrisburg, IL

Mileage - 35.9

Total Miles - 859.2

We planned to alter our route from the TransAm route today due to forecasted thunderstorms rolling in to the area, and really nothing but camping along the actual route.  We headed out north on IL-1 into gloomy looking skies and more of those "unholy rollers" (the term that I've decided is appropriate for the rolling hills in KY and IL!).

We got rained on for a bit, and it was actually pretty chilly this morning - is it really almost July?

We missed what was supposed to be our turn (possibly not a bad thing, since we both recalled later that the road the routing app was going to take us down looked to be gravel!), and were soon connecting up with state road 13, which the church had actually recommended as a shortcut to Carbondale yesterday (side note: maybe we should take the advice of pastors more often!  ;) ).  We got on 13, and it was just as promised...flat with wide shoulders to ride on!

 

We had a whole lane to ourselves!  The last 14 miles went by pretty quickly, and soon we were pulling in to Harrisburg.  And, unlike other days, the meteorologists had it wrong, and the thunderstorms still haven't rolled in!

We grabbed and early dinner at a Mexican restaurant, loaded up on snacks at Kroger since we are nearly out, and headed back to finish blogging.  It is now 8:15, blogging is all caught up, and our tired selves are about to crash!  We can barely stay awake until the sun goes down lately!  

Day 26 - June 29, 2013 - Sebree, KY to Cave In Rock, IL

Miles - 58.6

Total miles - 823.3

We left the church hostel fairly early in the morning, and headed out towards something we had been looking forward to all trip, a traditional highlight for anyone who has biked the TransAm...a ride on a ferry that takes vehicles and passengers across the Ohio River from Kentucky to Illinois.

We were moving pretty fast early in the morning...the weather was nice, we had very little traffic, and before we knew it, the first 15 miles was under our belt. We stopped into Jeri's Cafe in the town of Clay for an early lunch. 

After a filling lunch, we were back out on the road, ready to make it to our next quick stop in Marion. These miles seemed to drag on and on, with plenty of those rolling Kentucky hills to keep us busy. It was a struggle to keep hydrated with the early afternoon heat beating down on us, but thankfully we had filled our dromedary bag in case we ran out of water in our bottles. 

When we rolled into Marion, we went right to a cafe in an old Free Masons building. This place was really cute and reminded me of any little cafe/restaurant you would see in a movie set in a small town. I enjoyed a grilled chicken salad with homemade ranch dressing, while Erica enjoyed a whole bunch of side items such as cottage cheese with pears, green beans, corn, white beans, and a side salad. I thought it looked like she had hijacked a meals on wheels vehicle. 

As we left the cafe, we knew we only had about 11.5 miles to go to get to the ferry, but the skies were darkening quick. We pedaled as fast as we possibly could and managed to get on the ferry just as the skies were turning black, and we could see lightning just off in the distance. The ferry ride was quick and as we got off and stepped foot into Illinois, the skies opened up and the storm came right at us. We were planning on camping at Cave In Rock State Park, but obviously those plans went away quickly. We ducked under an awning of a building and devised another plan. We ended up waiting until  the rain had let up just enough for us to go a mile down the road to Cave In Rock Motel. It was not a 5 star hotel, but we were thankful to have a warm and safe place to stay. It ended up being quite the adventurous day! 

Day 25 - June 28, 2013 - Owensboro, KY to Sebree, KY

Mileage - 37.4

Total miles - 764.7

We woke up in Owensboro feeling really good, rested, and ready to start the day! After grabbing breakfast at the hotel, and hanging around in the room a bit too long, we took off to start our backtrack to the actual route.

We knew we had come about 13 miles or so off route to get to a hotel in Owensboro, and used a route mapping app to try to do it a little quicker than the day before.  For the first 6 or 7 miles, we stuck to the same route from before, which was pretty darn flat and nice!

Soon after that, however...we turned onto a road we hadn't ridden on the day before, all was fine for a mile or so, then it turned to a gravel farm road between fields.  Thinking it wasn't that far (less than 2 miles maybe), and there were some ruts left by truck tires where we could ride and avoid most of the deep gravel, we just kept going, and hoped for the best.

It didn't take long for the gravel to get deeper, which made it very difficult to keep control of the bikes.  Mel ended up walking her bike at one point.  It's always an adventure!

We had our first dog encounter of the day as we came to a farm with an older lady mowing the lawn.  Her dog ran out braking and chasing us, but when I stopped and put my hand out to her, she lowered her head and walked right over to be loved.  We've found this to be the case with most dogs we have encountered...and it proved true again just a few miles down the road when we ran into this cutie:

Today was full of the rolling hills we have experienced all across Kentucky - and they are exhausting.  They are not the same as the roller coaster hills in Virginia, which had a steep climb up the first one, but also a steep drop allowing you to shoot right up the next one without much effort.  The hills here require effort to climb, then have either a really short drop or just level off at the end.  Not nearly as fun, and they wear you out when they come one after another!  Mel always powers right up them, while I have to stop a time or two to catch my breath!  Here she is, way up ahead of me on one of them:

We rolled into Sebree around 4:30, and found a Subway!  How exciting - fresh veggies!  We grabbed a sandwich and some Gatorade to enjoy at the hostel later on, and headed through town to find the First Baptist Church, which has a cyclist hostel in its basement.

When we arrived at the church, Pastor Bob showed us around, then left us to do our own thing.  The hostel doubles as the church's youth center, so it had tons of couches, a big screen tv, pool table, ping pong, foosballl, and a full kitchen.  They also installed a shower for cyclists, and have a huge map to track where everyone is from who rolls through.  Great place to stay!  We passed our evening playing ping pong, watching tv, and blogging.  It was very relaxing!

Day 24 - June 27, 2013 - Utica, KY to Owensboro, KY

Miles - 18.5

Total miles - 727.3

We woke up in the fire station in Utica just as the other cyclists were getting ready to leave for the day. I was still feeling quite yucky from whatever horrible food I ate the day before. Since we were planning on riding just a short distance to Sebree, I requested a little more time to rest, and tried to eat some food and get more fluids in me. Finally, we got ourselves packed up and headed out from the fire station. 

We had just made it up our first few hills and were on some flat ground when we stopped to take a quick break under the shade of a tree by a house. We were greeted a few minutes later by the man who owned the home, who was just wondering if we were ok. He and Erica started discussing our trip and I was pretty sure that I was getting ready to either get sick or pass out. I was probably close to dehydration after being so sick. The man noticed I had gone pale and ran up to his porch to bring me a place to sit in the shade. A few minutes later, his wife, who happened to be an RN, came out with some water and crackers. These kind strangers were so amazing...they brought us plenty of cold water, some medicine to calm my stomach down a bit, and even brought Erica some food while I was recovering. We wrote down their address so that we could send them a thank you card. Sometimes the kindness of complete strangers is the best medicine in the world. 

Erica also tried to find a car for us to rent, so we could get to a nearby town in case I got worse, but the only cars available to rent were those tiny Fiats...rental car was a no-go. We decided our best bet was to get to Owensboro, which was only about 14 miles from where we were. 

It was a tough 14 miles, with some big hills and long stretches of road between the super hot wheat fields, and I had to take lots of breaks to drink as much water as possible. We made it to a hotel in Owensboro, where I promptly laid down to get rest. After a while, I felt good enough to eat, so we went across the street to Panera, for some soup and a delicious Mediterranean Veggie sandwich. After getting back to the hotel, I fell asleep and stayed asleep until early the next morning. It didn't feel like a super productive day and I felt bad for delaying our arrival in Sebree for another day. However, I can tell you that the next day I woke up feeling ready to go and ready to tackle another day.

Day 23 - June 26, 2013 - Falls of Rough, KY to Utica, KY

Mileage - 48

Total mileage - 708.8

We knew the first part of today was going to be very hilly, and it really was!  We walked up a few of the first hills we couldn't power up, and neither of us were really feeling up to par this morning.  We struggled through though, and I think we may have asked a few times if we had woken up back in Virginia again!

It's hard to read, but it says "Husband".  Wonder where "Wife" has to live?  :)

Just outside of Fordsville, we passed a cyclist going Eastbound who was from Beijing, China!  And we were stopped in the middle of a hill putting on sunscreen (see mom, we do wear it!), we saw three more cyclists pedaling up the hill!  The first was Sam, who we met on our very first day in Yorktown, and he was with two British cyclists, a man and a woman.  We talked for a bit, discussed our plans to stay in Utica for the evening due to approaching storms, and said our temporary goodbyes as they pedaled on.

We got about halfway into our day, and stopped for a cold drink at a grocery store in Whitesville, KY.  We sat in the shade for a bit, enjoying a drink and a banana, and talked about how we were making decent time.  It's always a mistake to do that...  And today was the first time I had experienced my sweat drying into a fine layer of salt on my skin!

We only had 20 miles left.  But of course, those 20 miles were painful!  We walked a few hills, but quite a few less than we would have had to in the beginning.  We finally arrived at the top of the last hill, and were thrilled to see that the volunteer  fire department that doubles as a hostel for cyclists was at the bottom of that hill!we arrived to find the trio we saw before, and one more cyclist already there and showered.  We quickly followed suit, and chatted about our respective trips.  We had some laughs, and it was good to spend some time with people experiencing the same things we are everyday!

Later that evening, as we were all preparing for bed, the tornado alarm went off, and it wasn't long before about 8 members of the local community were piling in to the fire station, as it is their storm shelter!  It was a bit before 9 when that happened, and some of us tried to sleep, while Andy and Alex from the UK enjoyed a rarely seen lightning storm!

About 20 minutes later, the warning was canceled and everyone left.  But...about 15 minutes after that, the alarm was back on, and even more people piled into the fire station!  Mel was feeling pretty horrible all evening, so she was trying to rest, and this wasn't helping!

Later on, around 1am, I was finally dozing off, when I felt something on my collarbone through my shirt.  I pulled it off, and it was a tick!  Gross!  I had to get up again and find a paper towel so I could smash the little bugger...ugh.  A tick bite is second only to a snake bite on my list of horrible occurrences, so it totally grossed me out that the damn thing had bitten me.  So of course, the rest of the night was spent feeling like I was covered in ticks, dreaming about being covered in ticks, and generally sleeping horribly.  Mel was up sick most of the night (food poisoning), so it was a rough one, to say the least!

Here's Badtz hanging out on a fire truck! Having a fantastic adventure!  (And I haven't lost him yet! :) )

Day 22 - June 25, 2013 - Glendale, KY to Falls of Rough, KY

Mileage - about 48 (I think?)

Total mileage - 659.3

After our tent dried a bit from the humidity overnight, we headed out to get back to the route after our weekend off.  We were about 7 miles off route, but luckily most of it was downhill!

We were quickly breezing through the cute, albeit mostly abandoned, downtown of Sonora, then out into some open, beautifully flat farmland.  It was just like home!  

We breezed through the first part of our day, and quickly arrived at a little store at a fork in the road, and stopped in looking for a cold drink.  We found a really nice family inside - mom, dad, and daughter - and ended up buying drinks, and sitting and talking with them for about an hour and a half before we remembered we needed to move on down the road.  Their place is called the Double L Grocery, and they also let cyclists stay there at the store  (and even teach some German cyclists how to play softball!).  They have plans to turn a shed in the back into a cyclist hostel, and mom even ended up buying an abandoned school building, which they used to let cyclists stay in until someone stole the electrical out of it.  What a bummer - these are really good people!

Of course, not too long after that stop, we ran into a ridiculously steep uphill after a river...

The terrain was pretty up and down after that - the same rolling hills we will undoubtedly find all across Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri.  It wasn't too long before we hit another milestone - crossing from Eastern Standard Time to Central Time!  This happened at a random county line in Kentucky:

It got really, really hot and humid around mid-afternoon, and as we stopped to rest in the shade of a lovely tree (few and far between in farm country), we heard meowing, and this cutie came out of the brush near a farm:

 Seems to be someone's very friendly barn cat - he was trying to climb Mel's leg and join us on the trip!

We got closer to the Rough River and lake created by the dam, and the road got quite a bit hillier.  We powered up the last few of them, and coasted in to the Rough River State Park campground a bit after 6.  We set up camp, found some left behind firewood, and tried unsuccessfully to start a campfire, but everything was utterly too damp from the humidity.  

The park office was closed when we arrived, and when we left in the morning, so we snuck through with a free campsite (with electricity!) and shower for the night!