Day 30 - July 3, 2013 - Carbondale, IL to Chester, IL

Mileage - about 44

Total miles - 905.2

It was overcast this morning, but at least no real chance of thunderstorms, thank goodness!  We headed out of Carbondale to Murphysboro on Route 13, and the rising went by uneventfully.  Murphysboro's slogan is "Ripe With Possibilities".  I'm fairly certain the word "ripe" doesn't belong in any city's motto, but oh well!

We decided to switch up the Adventure Cycling route out of Murphysboro to shave some miles and hills off of our day.  We stayed on the main roads, with minimal traffic, and probably saved ourselves 10 miles or so.  Illinois plays a little fast and loose with their road grade signs - but I guess what constitutes a big hill in Illinois is very different from Virginia!

We had decided to take the Mississippi Levee Alternate route, which is very flat until you get close to Chester, and had a really nice, fast ride throughout the morning.  The only problem with this route is that there aren't any service stops, but we survived.  This was probably the quickest, and one of the most enjoyable rides of the whole trip so far.

When the route eventually ran right alongside the Mississippi, there was a stop for coal trucks to load their coal onto river barges.  This area got a bit dangerous, with huge coal trucks coming from both directions, and they are only concerned with getting their coal to the barge in the quickest manner possible.

We rolled in to Chester in the early afternoon.  Chester is the birthplace of the creator of Popeye, so we spent some time checking out their Popeye stuff while trying to get a hold of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, who have a bike hostel in town.  After a couple of hours with no luck on that, and grabbing a late lunch/early dinner, we settled on staying at the one hotel in town.

After some much needed showers, I proceeded to burn popcorn in our room's microwave, which smelled amazing for the rest of the night.  We watched a Pawn Stars marathon, and passed out.

Day 29 - July 2, 2013 - Carbondale, IL - Weather Day

Mileage - 0

Another thunderstorm day...getting very, very old.

For entertainment, we walked in the rain to the strip mall across from the hotel, shopped Dick's Sporting Goods for things they didn't have (a decent inflatable sleeping mat, affordable and decent bike shorts), had lunch, took in a matinee movie (Monsters University), dinner, then back to sleep.  Boredom.

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.