Day 32 - July 5, 2013 - Farmington, MO to Centerville, MO

Mileage - 12 by bike, 38 by car I think

Our gracious hosts, Dr. And Mrs. C in Farmington, offered to show us a local Civil War fort this morning, so we took them up on their offer.  We loaded all of our stuff into their van, as they were going to drop us off at Johnson Shut-Ins park to camp after a bit of sightseeing.  Mrs. C even packed a huge picnic lunch for all of us!

We went to check out Fort Davidson, site of a civil war battle.  We are history geeks, so this was right up our alley!

We drove to Johnson Shut-Ins state park for a picnic lunch, then headed to the campground where we saw a very disappointing sign at the check-in booth - the campground was full!  We should have known...it was the holiday weekend, after all.  We found the campground host, and they confirmed that they were full, and wouldn't allow us to camp without a space.  Ugh...

So we unloaded our gear from the C's van, and headed off to Centerville, where we knew we could camp at the courthouse for free.  It was only 12 miles away, but 12 Missouri miles took us 2 hours that afternoon!  Ugh, these hills are truly miserable!  The courthouse in Centerville had a great lawn, and we talked to the people at the sheriff station who told us that the station had a restroom that stayed open 24/7, so we were set for the night.  After a quick dinner at the diner across the street, we settled in and watched some episodes of Friends while the locals set off their remaining fireworks (which sounded like bombs going off - those things have I cost a fortune!).  Slept well aside from getting a little cold - when there is so much humidity in the air, occasionally our fleece sleeping sacks don't cut it on cooler evenings!  Usually we are so tired it doesn't matter much though.

Day 31 - July 4, 2013 - Chester, IL to Farmington, MO

Mileage - about 48

Today started off with my little route mapping app getting us lost in the little town of Chester, IL.  Once we finally found the bridge, we checked out the Popeye statue in the little IL welcome center right next to the bridge across the Mississippi.

The bridge wasnt anything fancy, but had an interesting story - the two middle spans had actually collapsed into the river in the 40's during a tornado.  Luckily, there wasnt much wind as we crossed!

Just across the two lane bridge (luckily not that busy in the early morning), we found the Welcome to Missouri sign, near two gas stations and a fireworks stand.  Exciting stuff guys.

Here, we saw a woman go into the convenience store at 9am, emerge with a tall can of beer and a fountain cup with ice in it, pour the beer in the cup, and get back in the car.  At least she wasn't driving, and I guess it was the 4th...

The first part of our ride was flat, then we were hit with our first taste of the Missouri hills we have been hearing about.  After a few more, it actually flattened out a bit, and it appeared that we were at the highest point around, we had a good view of everything else.

The rest of the day was full of roller coaster hills, including lots that we had to walk up.  It was rather frustrating, but we muddled through.  We were about 19 miles away from our destination for the evening, Farmington, and we came across a guy on a 4-wheeler with his Rottweiler on the back, offering us some shade and cool well water at his house, just down the road.  We pedaled on, and stopped in to take this stranger up on his offer.  We had a good chat, and loved on his therapy dog, Hope.  He takes her once or twice a week to veterans hospitals or senior homes to cheer people up.  He is also trying to get her set up as a reading dog, just like what Woofs and Books does!  She ate up all the attention, and lifted our spirits during a tough day.

We were set to stay with an online friend's parents home in Farmington tonight (thanks again Mark!  And Mr. And Mrs. C!), and we rolled up to their house around 6:30.  After showering and starting some laundry, we helped Mrs. C cook dinner, and enjoyed a meal and conversation with them before passing out in their comfortable guest room.  We also got to check out their neat house, built in the 1870's.  It was such a great and comforting way to end the day!

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!