Bye Kentucky, What’s up Illinois?

I realized halfway through the night I should have found a blanket to cover myself in before going to sleep, but I tucked my hands in my shirt and slept until 5:30 AM. I was awake, so I took to the Bible study playroom and journaled a bit. About a half an hour later Old Timer and Jim woke up from their slumber. Mixed reviews on their night’s rest. We took our time packing up, I escaped to the kitchen and prepared some oatmeal and finished last night’s coffee. We took some last pictures of the beautiful church, and started grinding the pedals…two blocks to McDonalds for breakfast. This should give you an idea as to how we tackled today. The dudes grabbed some breakfast, I stuck with a coffee for now. We ate outside, and already the stories started rolling off. Jim had a thumb cut off from a lawn mower, Old Timer was electrocuted and fell 20 feet down. The stories could go on for ages, but we had to do something today. We had to bike.

We all grew slowly excited as we knocked off miles during the light morning showers because a milestone was heading our way. As we rolled closer, Old Timer suddenly takes off between Jim and I, and beats us both to the ferry. The ferry he was racing to transports us over the Ohio River, but also the Illinois state line! We in Illinois beetch, my home a couple years ago. Illinois has a special place in my heart, and a lot of awesome friends were made here. We couldn’t help ourselves on the ferry, we were talkative and taking selfies like a front row teen at a Justin Bieber concert. Okay, I took all the selfies, but only for journaling purposes, obviously. *Sellllfiiieee* We landed and made contact with new land like Lewis and Clark, and instantly high fived each other. Worth mentioning, I executed a terrible high five, forgot to keep my eyes on the elbow. Anyway, we meandered over to some natural structure of a cave in a rock, but quickly returned to town to scope out the local diner that hung a sign welcoming cyclists. We figured we would just have some coffee, but when they throw a case of homemade pie slices in your face, you eat pie. I decided to go with the classic strawberry, while the other dudes chose coconut cream. The pictures say it all, but good gawd pair some pie with coffee and friends and you have yourself a celebration. We considered crossing the ferry again, just to come back over for another, but again we had to get biking.

Up until Illinois, 98% of the trail was marked by signs, making navigation much easier. The 76 bike route signs stopped here though, so now we must rely on our paper maps and apps, which still is pretty easy. Illinois definitely started off strong, and by strong I mean hefty rolling hills. You basically go up, then down, then up, then down, for miles. Somewhere along the way we experienced some trail magic in the shape of a bench with a welcome sign. We took another 15 minute break for snacks and water. Again, we were slow to get up, but we rolled on out. The terrain was the same, just ups and downs. Another 30 minutes went by and we stumbled upon a convenience store. Another snack break. Today was extremely relaxing, and our destination was only 46 miles away so there was zero rush.

I decided to take off up the last few serious inclines. I’ve learned to put my head down, not even look at the top, and see how much I can take. Your mind can handle more than you think when you can’t see the end. Hills are 80% mental, 20% peanut butter. We arrived to our town early in the day, so we took a load off in the shade and purchased some snacks from the desolate convenience store. By that I mean each shelf had 1 or 2 items in stock, but plenty of whiskey and brews. Seeing there was only one chair in our shaded area, we all took turns. Jim soon after exclaims he just found a tick on his back, so we spend the next 10 minutes shirtless outside this convenience store performing tick checks. Jim deemed the floor a safer chance for a siesta. 20 minutes later after Old Timer sat in the chair, he to found a tick on himself. Here we go, now every little brush of hair I slapped the ish out of my leg assuming 18 ticks are on me. We got out of there, and deemed the chair to be exiled from our resting furniture.

We found the one and only other lounge in town that served hot food. I ordered the grilled chicken sandwich. “Sorry, we have no chicken right now” Oh, here we go Biscuit. Of course you don’t have chicken. I settled on the burger. Let’s just say I would have rather eaten a pretend grilled chicken sandwich than that burger again. I mean I ate it because my standards on this trip are about as high as Trumps approval ratings, but I’m just being honest. Full, we made our way over to the campground where we were quick to setup, chitchat, and go to bed. The evening weather was what you imagine having on a perfect late spring night. I’m excited for what tomorrow will bring.

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