September 14, 2022
Day Three: Lake of Egypt, Illinois to Okawville, Illinois
I slept well and was up early. I realized that I'd almost painted myself into a corner with my route yesterday, and now needed to find a reasonable route between the large, busy towns of Marion and Carbondale, a task which was exacerbated by the presence of the large Crab Orchard Lake right in the middle of everything.
Finally I thought I'd figured out a way to "thread the needle" between the two towns and escape to empty farm roads to the north.
I rode out of the motel into the cool morning, and after a few tenths of a mile on the busy highway, exited onto a series of empty country roads.
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After several pleasant miles I stopped at the Grassy General Store for breakfast. The nice guy running the place didn't have any pre-made sandwiches without meat, but he offered to cook me a couple of egg-cheese-biscuits. While I waited, I watched the TV in the store. When I'd first walked in, I glanced at it and groaned: Was it tuned to one of the annoying cable "news" channels, specifically the one I hate the most, and which I loathe so much that I won't even type its name? No, it was tuned to a channel I'd never heard of called "Newsy." It seemed to be a straight news channel with no overt editorializing or hyping of the latest manufactured outrage. Refreshing.
I mentioned to the guy at the store that I planned to ride on Spillway Road later this morning, and he told me that he'd heard it was closed for construction. No! That would foil my plans and force me into Carbondale. Locals are very often wrong about these things, though, so I decided to try not to worry about it, and rode back onto Grassy Road.
I had several miles before I turned onto Spillway Road, and the morning commute traffic was annoying but not terrible. As I'd hoped last night when working out the route, most of the traffic was headed the other direction in the morning.
The map showed a network of possibly nonexistent roads that I thought I might be able to use to cut a few miles off the busier Grassy Road, but when I investigated one of them, the rough gravel ended at a gate:
A narrow side gate was set up so that it could be easily opened and closed, but after a few minutes pondering this, I decided it wasn't worth the risking of ending up at a dead end surrounded by cattle. I rode back to Grassy Road.
After a few more miles I turned onto Spillway Road, where there was no "Road Closed" sign. I stopped briefly at a winery that wasn't open, and then descended a steep hill.
That was pretty much the last hill of the day. I was now in the prairie.
Spillway Road was great. Just a few cars. I never saw any indication of road work, so I have no idea what the guy back at the store was talking about.
I'd only worked out a route as far as the village of DeSoto. The route took me along flat farm roads - some gravel, some chip seal - and virtually empty of traffic. Wind is always a concern when riding on the Illinois prairie - it can be absolutely brutal when it's against you - but today the wind was so light that it wasn't an issue at all.
I rode past the first harvested corn field I'd seen this year, and stopped for a second, attempting to take a worthy photo of some spilled corn on the road, without dismounting from the bike:
I encountered one very, very minimal hill, and the people at the house at the crest of it had erected a mirror across the road, presumably to help them when exiting their driveway:
I arrived in DeSoto, population 1,590, and sat in the shade on the steps of a church for a while. I worked on a route for the next 30 or so miles, heading northwest. I investigated DeSoto for a few minutes, but didn't see much that interested me, and took only one photo:
Back onto country roads, again a combination of gravel and chip seal, with very occasional traffic. Some of the narrow chip seal roads are practically bike paths. I've actually ridden on bike paths wider than some of these roads.
There wasn't much shade, but a couple of sections were lined with trees, like this memorably nice one:
I arrived in Vergennes, population 298, and no services, and sat in the picnic shelter of the tiny town park. I had run out of snacks in my handlebar bag, and dipped into the food bag in my pannier for the first time on the trip. I'm carrying two(!) jars of Nutella with me, and opened one for the first time.
There was a pop machine in Vergennes, but it was not operational, unfortunately.
I got back on the road and headed for Pyramid State Park. Scenery was more of the same.
I arrived at Pyramid State Park, where Joy and liked to hike when we lived in Illinois. There's not a lot at the park, but I was able to refill my water bottles, *and* there was a working pop machine, amazingly enough. I sat for quite a while at a picnic table in the shade, figuring out where I'd go next.
I'd done 53 miles so far, too early to stop for the day in the park and camp, even if I wanted to camp in a place without a shower. I decided to head for Okawville, 40+ miles away.
The last 20 miles were a bit of a slog. I began to see things I remembered from day rides when we lived in Lebanon, Illinois. The first thing I remembered from before was this large, kinda creepy statue of the Easter Bunny. It's about as tall as me.
I marked 90 miles by taking a shadow shot. These never turn out as well as expected for some reason, but I keep trying anyway.
I arrived at the Original Springs Hotel. It's an "historic" hotel, which means that it's old and kinda crappy. But the price was very, very right, and the people working there are friendly and helpful.
Joy and I once rode our bikes there from Lebanon and stayed overnight. I had a memorably terrible meal at the hotel restaurant that time.
Incredibly enough that experience was repeated this evening, when the cheese pizza I ordered at the hotel bar proved to be nearly inedible. How do you screw up a cheese pizza? I ate as much of it as I could, then went to bed around 7:30.
Today's ride: 95 miles (153 km)
Total: 243 miles (391 km)
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