Kiki Bikes Across America

Archive for the ‘Illinois’ Category

Departure on May 26, 2009 from Yorktown, VA

Thank you to those of you who made donations to support Multiple Sclerosis as I rode across the country this summer. I have ridden in 12 MS 150 Bike Tours since 2000 and this marked my 13th ride to support MS.

The trip was a success as I completed over 4,263 miles from Yorktown, VA to Portland, OR and then down the coast to San Francisco, CA between May 26, 2009 and August 19, 2009 (86 days). I met lots of amazing people along the way and pedaled through 13 states and saw lots of beautiful scenery. I feel like I’ve now seen some of the United States, but I still would like to see more!

I have many memories from the trip and I would love to share them all, but that would be impossible. The easiest way is to skim through my lengthy blog over the past 86 days as I kept a daily journal for all that happened and all those people we met along the way.

The first few states were pretty ‘familiar’ as far as scenery goes – I hadn’t been to Kentucky before, but western Kentucky was quite similar to Virginia with lots of horse farms and open fields and such. Eastern Kentucky was a little more poverty-stricken and lots of trash on the sides of the roads, poor road conditions with holes that you had to be really careful not to hit! I picked up a staple from the road in eastern Kentucky and wound up with my first flat tire of the trip. We only briefly saw Illinois (I think we spent 2 days biking through southern Illinois), but we met some really fun people, namely two motorcyclists who invited us to their home to camp outside, grill, and play in the lake. Also, we saw Superman in Metropolis, IL which was off-route and not planned. As it happened, we had bike problems that day and had to hitch-hike 70 miles to a bike shop to get a new chain for George’s bike. Missouri was humid as anything and had lots of hills as we were crossing in the Ozarks.

About 40 miles outside of Springfield, Missouri, my shifter cable broke and I wound up hitching 40 miles to a bike shop to get a tune-up and get that fixed. I also had seen civilization for the first time since I started the trip – Springfield was the largest city I’d come to since I left the Northern VA area in May. We pedaled through Missouri in 6 days and then reached Kansas where we switched our sleeping and biking habits and started sleeping during the day at fire stations, libraries, and churches so that we could bike during the night to avoid the 115 degree heat and humidity. It worked fairly well, except that I biked the entire state of Kansas carrying a viral infection, only to find out my second day in Colorado.

Just 70 miles east of Pueblo, Colorado in a tiny hamlet called Arlington, I found myself extremely sick and unable to continue pedaling. I stopped and told the guys I was with I wouldn’t be going any further. This was my last opportunity to find someone who could help me – there were approximately three houses and a few trees for shade. I stopped, rested, and when I wasn’t feeling better, I walked to a house to see if someone was home who could drive me to a doctor. A nice man, by the name of C.D. Anderson said he’d give me a ride to Ordway, CO (25 miles west). We rode there and the clinic said I needed to get to a hospital, but the next closest one was in Pueblo. He gave me a ride further, another 45 miles or so to the hospital where I got sick again and admitted myself to the Emergency Room. There I spent the next five and a half hours on a bed in the ER receiving saline and anti-nausea medicine. I slept on and off but it was nearly impossible since it was the ER and there were plenty of people there making noise. By 6:30pm or so, I was released from the hospital and told they couldn’t keep me – however, I was so lucky to have distant relatives come and rescue me and take me home with them to Westcliffe to spend some days recuperating.

A few days later, thanks to the generosity of a complete stranger (Cindi) from Westcliffe, I had a car to borrow and found myself driving to Denver to visit a friend from college. I unfortunately got sick again and at this point was very frustrated and didn’t know what was wrong. This was the only point in my trip where I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to continue if the virus didn’t get out of my system. I slept and rested for another day or two and then went whitewater rafting (already had reservations made) and then drove to Estes Park to see the beautiful Rocky Mountains and take photos.

Riding dirt bikes with Chase in Colorado.

I finally got on my bike again almost two weeks after getting sick and started to pedal by myself for a couple days to meet up with Chase, my biking partner for the second half of the trip. I found myself spending a couple unplanned days in Salida, Colorado where I met Mike, who showed me around town, and then guided me up my first 14er, Mt. Elbert. It was incredible being on the highest mountain in Colorado and one of the highest in the lower 48 states! Afterwards, I climbed 26 miles up and over the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass which was at 11,312 feet! At the top of the pass, I was greeted by Chase who randomly found me and I rode down the other side of the mountain and then hitched back to Pitkin where he and his family had rented a cabin for a few days. A few days were spent in Pitkin and Ohio City, Colorado with Chase’s family before we hit the road again July 14^th.

The adventures really picked up once Chase and I met and started riding together – we found ourselves first riding a short-cut from Telluride, CO to Moab, UT in two days and meeting a really nice woman by the name of Lauren. As it turns out, she invited us to have dinner with her (grilled steak and peppers along with pickled asparagus) and sleep in her camper van just outside of Paradox, CO. We then met Wayne, who gave us a lift from La Sal Junction to Moab and then into Arches National Park, where we wound up touring the park for four hours together. It was a great time and nice since Wayne hadn’t had an opportunity to see the park before so we all benefited! After Moab, we rode down to Monticello (I had to pick up mail) and then onward to Hite, UT (Lake Powell). This was one of the worst days (from Blanding, UT to Hite, UT) as the heat was on and the 88 mile stretch of no services didn’t help. We had to each carry 1.5 gallons of water and pedaled all day to get to Hite where we both felt like collapsing.

Long story short, we ended up catching a ride with Jack and his 7-year old (they were from the L.A. area) from Lake Powell in Utah all the way up to the Yellowstone National Park in the northwest corner of Wyoming! We were basically on their family vacation for 3 days and it was amazing. We had such a great time! Once we parted from Jack and David, we left to go to West Yellowstone where we ran into 5 guys that Chase last biked with in Missouri! Who knew we’d end up on the Transamerican Route in Montana weeks later and run into them! They were 5 guys who graduated this year from JMU and were doing the full Transamerican Route.

So a few more mile of pedaling we rode through Montana to Missoula where I bumped into my best friend’s ex-husband in a bike shop, saw my last chiropractor of the trip (6^th one), got my second flat tire, and did my last long uphill climb of 46 miles over Lolo Pass into Idaho! Just into Idaho, we met a great family from Frederick, Maryland who invited us to eat dinner with them and camp with them. We checked out some hot springs in Idaho before sluggishly reaching Washington where Chase wound up with another flat tire. Thanks again to nice people, we camped with a couple from British Columbia at a campground in Washington, camped on someone’s front porch in Walla Walla, Washington, and found ourselves chased out of a campground after we spotted three large snakes. Needless to say, we camped on the side of the road that night only 6 miles from the campground and exhausted we were after covering 106 miles in the blazing heat with some headwinds too!

Arrival in Oregon!

Finally into Oregon, we were getting exciting for reaching Portland. But it wasn’t over yet! We hit horribly strong headwinds in the Columbia River Gorge (apparently the windsurfing capital of the world), yet no one forewarned us of this! We battled the headwinds for a good 100 miles or so (on and off with the intensity), but once we were within 150 miles of Portland, the winds were really terrible! Chase wasn’t liking it and nor was I. We agreed to hitch-hike the last 90 miles into Portland so we wouldn’t pedal away for 2 more days to get there and instead could enjoy seeing Portland before having to continue down the coast (or in Chase’s case, before he had to fly home).

On August 9^th, we reached the Pacific Coast at Cannon Beach, Oregon. I had 3,570 miles at this point. Our last evening of the ride (coast to coast), we had to camp in a city park as all the campgrounds were full and the motels/hotels were all booked up. So to make our story more fun, we were awoken at 5:55am by two police officers saying “Police Department” multiple times outside the tent. We had camped illegally and they came to ask us to leave and well to check out whether or there were any warrants on either of us. We checked out okay and packed up and went on our way. We hitched back to Portland and spent a few more days there with Alina and Josh (high school friends).

The last leg of the trip consisted of me biking down the coast by myself from Nescowin, OR to San Francisco, CA. It was somewhere around 690 miles that I covered from August 11^th to August 19^th with no rest days. I met a lot of really nice people along the way and rode with several groups of riders as well. I met four motorcyclists from Victoria in British Columbia in Bandon, OR and then met again in Brookings, OR the next day, 100 miles later. It was fun to see the same faces again on several occasions and we really had a great time exchanging stories and hanging out at the campsites.

Arrival in San Francisco, CA - End Destination!

At last, I reached San Francisco on August 19^th around 6pm after riding 72 miles my last day. The ride was pretty easy with a few hills, but nothing major, and the sun was out for the majority of the day – only once I got into the bay area did the fog really begin to surround you. From August 19^th until August 25^th, I spent the time in San Francisco sampling some of the most delicious ethnic food while hanging out with one of my best friends — Iman, who flew out to meet me! We departed on August 25^th on a train back across the country which was just an amazing experience filled with meeting many more people, hanging out with Thane and Brenda from Sioux Falls and playing cards, and joking around with the Amtrak staff. Arrival into DC was mixed – the trip was officially over and I would have to re-acclimate to life back home with a full-time job and deal with the other surprises in life.

Thanks to all of you who helped me out along the way or supported me in one way or another to make this trip happen. The messages of appreciation and congratulations really meant a lot to me when I finished and I’m very grateful to the friends, family, and co-workers who encouraged me, supported me, and helped me make this a reality. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Thanks to you all!

Just a few random thoughts… I keep forgetting to actually mention or write down. I always think of stuff when I’m riding and forget later on in the day.

Virginia:

• lots of rolling hills
• nice scenery and houses
• lots of horses and cows
• friendly people, however, the drivers aren’t as respectful of cyclists as elsewhere
• cowtails are easy to find in southern / southwestern VA (a candy called Cowtails)
• the Appalachian Mountains are pretty significant when you cross them on a bike. I think we have done the hardest climbs possibly for this entire trip. We’ll see though:)
• lots of dead snakes

Kentucky:

• there are lots of dogs in eastern Kentucky
• the poverty level in eastern Kentucky is incredible
• the roads are in bad shape – in particular in the eastern part. There are lots of huge gaping holes in the sides of roads and no guard rails
• they use ripple strips on the sides of all the roads in Kentucky. You know, like on the side of I-66, those ripple things are on all the roads in Kentucky. It’s useful, I guess, but sucks if you’re a cyclist and the road is really busy and you want to ride on the shoulder and there’s no “ripple-free” space.
• it’s also very similar to Virginia and scenic in the western part of Kentucky. More horses and cows in that part and fewer dogs.
• it seems in the eastern part of Kentucky, people have dogs as “guard animals” whereas in the western part, dogs are more like family members and pets.
• motorists seem to be a little more patient with cyclists and slow down more than those in Virginia.

Illinois:

• there are some rolling hills here, also straight roads. We drafted for 18 miles on a straight road – it had a few curves and a few bumps in the road, but otherwise it was pretty straight.
• the people seem friendly (from what we saw) – we had great people welcome us to camp at their place, and another great experience was staying at Rachel’s (who Ben from Warm Showers contacted, even though she wasn’t a member). We only spent 2 or so days in Illinois so it’s hard to say what the rest of Illinois might be like, but my opinion and impression was good. I would go back.
• lots of corn fields
• the drivers aren’t as courteous with cyclists on the road. They sometimes honk at you if you’re biking slowly up a hill.
• one day, I think I smelled stinky skunks on 5 different occasions.

Missouri:

• people seem friendly, but I have yet to have an amazing experience with anyone in particular from Missouri. I think one of the most friendly people thus far was Chuck (from Indiana) who I met the other night. Otherwise, I haven’t had much contact with the folk from Missouri. Although my latest chiropractor seemed really cool and friendly along with his staff in the office. They were all interested in my bike trip and asking lots of questions.
• there are a few dogs here, but not nearly as many as in Kentucky.
• the heat is the worst part of Missouri.
• it’s a scenic state with rolling hills, lots of farmland and horses and cows out in the pastures.
• in Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri I’ve noticed there are lots of what appear to be wild orange lilies growing on the side of the roads. I see them everywhere.
• lots of dead turtles here, fewer dead snakes, and fewer dog chases!

I have never in my life seen so much road kill until this trip. I should have tried to keep track, but then again, I think I would have gone insane… there is so much!

I saw a dead armadillo today on the side of the road – I think the first armadillo I’ve seen in real life outside of a zoo, and it had to be dead :/

Animals spotted on this trip thus far:

• Armadillo
• Chipmunk
• Mice
• Squirrels (duh!)
• Birds everywhere (duh!)
• Deer (almost ran into one at night when biking back from the library)
• Snakes
• Lizards
• Horses
• Cows
• Chickens
• Goats
• Llamas
• Fox
• Turtles
• Dogs (everywhere)
• Cats (several houses with multiple cats hanging out – like 14+)
• Bunnies/Rabbits
• and more that I’m probably forgetting

Speaking of which, there’s a cat just on the paved path in front of the courthouse right now. Looks like he’s grooming himself. I’d go pet him, but then again, I don’t want him becoming attached and coming and curling up inside my tent all night. He’s curious and cute looking – black and white

Tuesday, June 16th: Carbondale, IL to St. Mary’s, MO

Woke up rather late this morning compared to normal – got up about 7:30 and slowly the guys started waking up. Last night Rachel met two more cyclists who ventured into the Long Branch cafe where she works. She offered to let them stay at her house as well and they showed up around midnight and then everyone was talking, hanging out, listening to music and such. I was pretty tired and just wanted to sleep especially knowing we’d be back on the bikes in the morning. Finally, sometime around 1:30 I fell asleep. I then woke up again around 3, I think and saw Rachel and Colin were still up out on the porch. I luckily fell back to sleep again. Woke up again probably sometime between 4-6am to see/hear the thunderstorm/lightening going on outside – looked like a pretty big thunderstorm. No one else woke up during the night to the storm…

But anyway, the two other cyclists were Michael and Colin, two music students who just graduated from JMU (one from undergrad, the other from graduate). Michael just finished his graduate degree and plays the piano and says he’s planning to stick around Harrisonburg for another year. Colin did his undergraduate in classical guitar, I believe. They’re biking to Oregon and seem to be enjoying their trip thus far and doing some detours and such when they feel like it.

Anyway, so a late start was had. George made us omelettes this morning which were good; I went to the co-op to go online and find a post office further down the route so Mom can mail my insurance card to me. So I found a post office in Pittsburg, Kansas where she’ll mail me my card. We’re aiming to be there no later than Sunday evening and I think we should be able to make it by then with a few good days of biking. We’ll probably take a half-rest day then and do laundry and such again, I imagine.

We rolled out from Rachel’s about 10:30 this morning and the clouds were rolling in and thunder was making its presence known. We were probably riding no more than 10 minutes before the rain set in and it rained the entire way to Murphysboro (about 6-7 miles from Carbondale). We rolled in and I stopped to put away my solar panel in one of my bags since it was useless at this point, so I was just going to use the battery from the panel. No more than a minute or two later and it started to really storm – really dark skies, torrential downpour of rain and loud thunder and lightening. We had taken cover under an overhang at a Citgo gas station and probably stayed there for 30 minutes or so. During this time I was beginning to feel the pain in my back again and it was very painful and uncomfortable. Any movement hurt – stretching and bending, etc. I went into the gas station and asked if there was a chiropractor in the town – the lady knew of one, so I went in search once the rain let up and the storm had passed. The guys went to the library while I went to a chiropractor and luckily was able to be seen within 30 minutes and on a walk-in basis. The doctor readjusted my back and did a small neck adjustment and I am already feeling better thank goodness. It looks like I’ll have to go to a chiropractor at least once a week to make it thru this trip without going insane with all the lower back pain. It’s really frustrating because I think it’d get better if I could go regularly two or three times a week and get the adjustments, but the major towns/cities are so far apart that I really don’t/won’t get the opportunity to even do that. Anyway, for now, I’m feeling much better and am going to continue the stretching and exercises I’ve learned from the past three chiropractors thus far.

I guess my new goal can be to see a chiropractor in every state along the course of route and just see how they are all different and what not. Each experience has been quite different. Today’s visit was more like the chiropractor visits I have had back home with Dr. Anna – just adjust and move on. I kinda want a deep tissue massage though – I think that’d definitely feel good on my back. Anyway, the chiropractor today said that most likely my pain is resulting from an imbalance of muscles and my hips are rotating in different directions and it’s causing some sort of pull in the back muscles, which causes the horrible pain.

Anyway, the day was a bit slow to begin – I left the chiropractor’s at 12:30 and went to meet the guys at the library. We then went to Diary Queen for lunch and then left Murphysboro at 1:30 (only 7.5 miles into the day’s mileage). We had to try and ride 55-60 miles after lunch. The day went pretty well, but for some reason right after lunch I felt really sleepy – my eyes kept wanting to close, but I had to stay awake while biking. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one that felt sleepy – George did too. It was weird, but we stopped about 23 miles into the day at a gas station in Ava and got ice cream and refilled water bottles. We continued on biking and the roads were slightly rolling and had a few bends/turns to them. In the last town in Illinois before crossing the Mississippi River, Chester, we saw Popeye the Sailor Man’s statue. We stopped there and took a few photos as well as faked our “Welcome to Illionois” photos since we couldn’t get any when we entered Illinois the other day (we were driven across the border because the bridge was not good for cyclists to ride on).

I played around and took some video as we crossed the bridge to Missouri and then we stopped again for the mandatory “Welcome to…” signs that we reach at each state. We also had to get ice cream again. It was then where we stopped that we met another cyclist, Lawrence. He was biking from Manhattan, Kanasas to his hometown somewhere in Kentucky. He’s doing the transamerican trail in sections since he can’t get all the time off from work at once, so he does 2 weeks each year. At this point, we were 19 miles from Ozora, where we were planning to overnight (camp). We had a good pace going, about 17-18mph and were covering ground quite well. The roads were extremely straight and you could see for miles – it was weird. Also, the roads here are named using the alphabet, like “Hwy H” or “Hwy K” which I find a bit odd, but kind fo cool  since it’s different.

Into Missouri we go

We rolled into St. Mary’s (8 miles from Ozora) and decided to look for a place to camp here. There wasn’t much of anything here – one little bar/restaurant open and that was it. We went up to this church and were lucky enough to have talked to a member of the church across the street (asking if we could camp in his yard). He said he could do better than that and said we could sleep in a hall in the church, so he grabbed a key and unlocked it for us and is letting us stay here. It’s definitely nice to not have to worry about setting up the tent and just being able to stay dry and such. Once we got settled in, George and I walked down the bar/restaurant to order some burgers/fries to bring back to the church. Chris waited here since we didn’t have a key to get back in. We ate, cleaned up, and are now all about to hit the sack for the night.

The church in St. Mary where we got permission to sleep inside a hall

GPS Stats:
57.9 miles
04:50 moving time
11.9 avg speed
40.6 max speed

Computer Stats:
59.41 miles
04:50:03 moving time
12.2 avg speed
42.0 max speed

Snake count: 1 dead
Dog chases: 0, but saw the cutest yellow lab puppy tonight – the cutest!

Monday, June 15th – Rest Day in Carbondale, IL

Today was a rest day / bike maintenance day for us. We got up around 9:30 and headed downtown. The guys rode their bikes down to the bike shops. I decided not to as my bike is in pretty good shape still and I figured why spend money on a tune-up if I don’t have anything wrong with it or anything that needs to be tuned-up? It seems to be riding just fine, so I don’t want to mess with it.

We then met up at Long Branch, the cafe where Rachel works. We all had breakfast down there and it was really yummy. We all had vegetarian burritos and then Rachel drove us to the movie theatre and we were an hour early before the first showing, so we walked over to Walmart and picked up some snacks to sneak into the theatre with us:) We saw Taking of Pelham 123 at 1:15 and the movie was really good and had some action. It was a good choice for a movie for the three of us, I’d say. Afterwards, we went back to Walmart to pick up a few other things. I got some terry cloths, degreaser, a new toothbrush for cleaning my chain and cassette. I then started to walk back to Rachel’s when my phone rang. It was a couchsurfer I had contacted two days prior about looking for a place to stay here. Aur is his name and he is friends with Abed (another couchsurfer) who said I should try to contact Aur since Abed was out of town. Anyway, Aur offered to give me a ride back from Walmart to Rachel’s since it was about 2 miles or so. So he gave me a ride back and then we went to the Co-Op to check out the store (it’s a small version of Whole Foods). I picked up some trail mix and dates because I love them and they looked really good!

Then I walked back to Rachel’s and started working on my bike. I replaced my brakes on both wheels and cleaned my chain, crank, and cassette pretty well. It was black beforehand and now it’s shiny and silver again. It was pretty gunky, but it’s much better now. I just did a general cleaning of my bike including the rims and tubing too. It’s in good shape now for the next 1,000 miles.

I came back inside and showered and then started updating my receipts/expenses in my spreadsheet, updated the biking log I’m keeping for statistics and averages and such. Now I’m finishing up blogs and now going to head down to Denny’s (courtesy of a gift card from Michele), so will be enjoying some dinner down there and then probably go sneak some internet from the co-op and sit outside on the bench while I use it.

I started to look at our maps for Missouri and it looks like we’ll be in Pittsburg, Missouri by Sunday evening (21st) next week. It’s almost 411 miles from here to there, and with the Ozarks to start climbing over, but I think it’s doable. I need to get an address for a post office there to have mom mail me my insurance card for my new health insurance, so hopefully I can call tomorrow and get some info on that.

Anyway, enough for today – pretty decent rest day, especially since it rained this morning and was overcast/dreary this afternoon.

Sunday, June 14th – Vienna, IL to Carbondale, IL

Today we got up a little later than usual – about 8am or so but took our time getting ready and rolled out from Kerri and Tracy’s around 10:30 in the morning. It was already getting hot pretty fast, but we only had 43 miles or so to ride to Carbondale, so we had plenty of time. The miles were slow and tiresome for me for some reason, maybe the heat and just knowing we had a rest day tomorrow and not feeling motivated to go fast like I was the previous day. We rode 23 miles and then stopped for lunch just outside of Anna where Rt 146 and 51 intersected. We had Subway and I had the first person question my solar panel and why/what for? So I explained it was to power my GPS and that it had been working well for 20 days thus far and I had only really needed to us the AA batteries in it for about 3 hours. It’s been great and I love it:)

Anyway, we continued the last 40 miles to Carbondale and it was slightly hilly for the portion I led and then nice and flat for the sections Chris and George led. Chris led us the last 6-7 miles into Carbondale and got a nice pace going around 19-24 mph on the flat/slight downhill portion. It was definitely nice to get to Carbondale fast in those last miles. We stopped at Southern Illinois University to go to the library and try to get internet access. The computers were all locked down with username/password, except 2 which were for 15-minute use. I went on and looked up motel/hotel rates and found some decent prices for around $50/night which was our back-up plan. I also checked couchsurfing and warmshowers for potential hosts. I had emailed two couchsurfers the night before but hadn’t heard back yet, so that was out. I then checked warm showers and found one guy (Ben) listed with a phone number so I called him up and he answered. He was really friendly and nice and was out of town but said he’d try to find a friend we could stay with. He called back about 30 minutes later and said we could stay at his friend Rachel’s in Carbondale. He sent me her number and I called her and she was totally cool and friendly – really laid-back and willing to let us crash with her for a couple of nights.

We then biked over to her place and hung out waiting for her to come home. Then we unpacked, showered, and called in an order to Thai Taste and went and picked that up and brought it back here. We all really liked the thai – I’d get it again tomorrow, but I think I’ll try something else instead just so I’m not eating thai two nights in a row. After eating, Chris, George, and I walked to the laudromat and did our laundry and then walked to Dairy Queen a bit over a mile away. They got brownie batter blizzards and I had a cookie dough blizzard – really yummy. We then went back to the laudromat to put our clothes in the dryer and wait for about 20 minutes till they were done. We got back to Rachel’s around 11:30 and then called it a day and went to bed.

GPS Stats:
43.7 miles
31.6 max speed
11.7 avg speed
03:44 moving time

Computer Stats:
44.65 miles
32.5 max speed
12.1 avg speed
03:41:38 moving time

Snake count: 1 dead today
Dog chases: 0

George just posted a few videos on his YouTube page, so check them out if you like!

His page is: http://www.youtube.com/rage0rge

Sunday, June 14th: Vienna, IL to Carbondale, IL

We’re heading out this morning leaving Kerri and Tracy’s to head to Carbondale. We had an awesome stay here and will definitely have to stay in touch with them. We’re going to get our bikes tuned-up/cleaned and what not in Carbondale and hopefully catch a movie for a change of things to do/see.

I’ve just uploaded some more photos on facebook as well as picasa (same ones, just on both sites). So whenever you have a chance, check them out. We saw Superman yesterday! Also some photos of Chris and George goofing off at the lake yesterday and the rest of Kentucky photos from a few days ago. We’re now in Illinois for all of 2 – 3 days or so and then we’ll be in Missouri!

Link to the Picasa album

Time to head on out and get the miles in to Carbondale!

Saturday, June 13th – Dixon, KY to Vienna, IL

Today was our most interesting day so far, I think. It started out fine and we had no problems – just warming up and were 18 miles in when the first issue came about. I heard a funny sound with George’s chain and just as I heard it I thought, “I hope he doesn’t break another chain because it’s at least 115 miles till Carbondale where we can get to a bike shop, and we need to all get replacement powerlinks to fix broken chains.” Not even two seconds after this thought and snap, his chain broke. We stopped at this intersection in the middle of nowhere (somewhere between Clay, KY and Marion, KY) at Rt 139 and 120 or something, I think. We tried to see about fixing the chain with some parts George bought that came with a chain tool from Walmart. They wouldn’t work, so we were now stranded without a chain, or parts to fix his chain.

One car stopped to ask if we needed help – but wasn’t really able to help us as they were on to a family function of sorts, but said if we were still stranded in 2-3 hours they’d come back with a trailer to pick us up and our bikes/gear and drive us to Princeton, KY where there was a Walmart to see about buying a new chain. Bicycle shops are few in this area – so Walmart was our best bet. A few minutes later, after being on hold with Walmart to ask if they had a chain for George’s bike (they never came back), I hung up and then flagged down a pick-up truck and asked if they were heading towards Princeton. They said they were and I asked if we could throw our bikes in the back and get a ride as we were stranded. The couple (Stan and Brenda) were very friendly and just out for a Saturday drive. They were from Indiana and said they could give us a ride and off we went. It was about 18 miles or so to Walmart in Princeton. George and I went in to check on chains, but they didn’t have one long enough. Stan and Brenda waited to find out if we were still stranded – we were. The lady at Walmart called a local hardware store to see if they had something; she thought they did and they thought they did. Needless to say, we got there and it was the same piece Walmart sold that George had already bought and didn’t work. Our next idea was to have Stan and Brenda drop us near the interstate to try to find a truck that was going towards Carbondale (where we knew they had 4 bike shops) – but Brenda and Stan decided to drive us further, towrads Paducah, KY where I called ahead to a bike shop to see if they had the chain and powerlinks. They did, so off we went. We arrived just after 1pm at Bike World in Paducah and George got his chain fixed and we then went to grab Mexican food since it was about 2pm and we hadn’t eaten. The chain first broke at 11am, so we were on the go hitching it for 2 hours to the bike shop. Thanks to Brenda and Stan though – otherwise, I have no idea what we would have done.

After eating lunch, we went back to Bike World, because one of the guys there said he’d drive us over the bridge to Illinois (it was a bad bridge to bike on and it was either that or biking on the interstate bridge, which is illegal). So he drove us about 8 miles from the shop and into Illinois and dropped us at this intersection with a gas station (no longer in service) and a small restaurant of sorts. We did a quick pit stop, came out and started chatting with a few motorcylists and before we knew it, we had an invitation to camp out at their place just outside of Vienna, Illinois (which was right on the route from Metropolis to Carbondale). They told us they had a lake with diving board, and that pretty much sold it – plus it was about 20 miles from where we were dropped off. It was already 4pm in the afternoon and Carbondale was about 70 miles or so away, so we had plenty of time to get there. We figured, why not – it’s not every day someone invites you to camp at their place and swim in their lake!

But first, after leaving our drop-off and the motorcyclists Tracy and Kerri, they said we had to go check out the giant Superman statue – so we did, but only after celebrating our first 1,000 miles with an ice cream from Sonic (the drive-in fast-food place). It was tasty and well deserved especially after the day we’d had. After that, we went and saw  the Superman statue and come to find out it was the 31st annual Superman celebration! What are the chances that we wind up in Metropolis, IL on the weekend of the annual Superman celebration? And then to finish our evening arriving at Tracy and Kerri’s for grilled out steaks/hamburgers, baked potatoes, and the boys got to swim and play in the lake! It has definitely been a great day from what seemed like a crappy one with bad luck and no bike shops nearby. It was fun and adventurous and these are the things that I know I’ll remember from this trip.

So we traveled the furthest in distance today, but had our shortest biking day!

GPS Stats: (including the route which was driven by car)
121.0 miles
05:02 moving time
23.9 avg speed
82.3 max speed

Computer Stats:
42.66 miles
3:21:43 moving time
12.6 avg speed
31.5 max speed

Snake count: 0 today
Dog chases: 0 today
Highlights:

1. Repair #5 today
2. Hitch-hiking with bikes 70+ miles – very nice people (Stan and Brenda) from Indiana gave us a ride
3. Invitation to swim and camp at lake near Vienna, IL – met some awesome folks, Carrie and Tracy
4. Got out of Kentucky and into Illinois! 3rd state now!
5. Saw the Superman statue in Metropolis, IL
6. Going to Carbondale, IL tomorrow – about 40-45 miles away, then relaxing a bit, seeing a movie perhaps, getting bike tune-ups and doing laundry on Monday!

Aches/pains: none really, just some very minor back aches at the end of the day – probably from too much car riding and not enough biking, right? Haha! The last four days have been pretty good though – no real back pain at all, so I’m just going to continue taking MSM and fish oil and doing my stretches and hope that continues to improve things!