Day 3 - ending near Litchfield, IL - The Great Plains Trail - Sort Of

May 17, 2023

Day 3 - ending near Litchfield, IL

Day 3 - Springfield, IL to Litchfield, IL

Heart

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My left knee was hurting some last night, and by 3:00am was keeping me awake. I took a pain pill at 4:00am, then slept well - too well, since I didn't wake up until 6:55am.

Listened to my weather radio while working on yesterday's report in the tent. It was going to be a perfect day! The sunshine would be hazy, however, due to smoke drifting into the area.

Lake Lou Yeager Primitive Campground was where I planned to be this evening. I had it figured as 56 miles away, which made my 11:30am departure kind of a late start.

I had a route planned to take me by a few restaurants in Springfield. After last night's dinner, I didn't need to eat breakfast first thing, so decided to let the Garmin have another go at guiding me on, hopefully, a more direct route. Its routing was certainly different than mine. Went through the Illinois State Fairgrounds - never been here before. The Garmin routing was working, except I kept misreading which way to turn. After one too many 'Make a U-turn' displays, I went off on my own, which had me on some very busy roads. Not good. Finally, at 1:07pm, I arrived at the bike trail I was looking for on the southwest side of town. This is better, so much better. I was back to using my MAP330 for routing, though at this point it was just follow the trail.

In Chatham at 2:11pm I went off-route half a block to eat at Chatham Cafe, a place Darryl and Bonnie had recommended last night after they looked at my route plan. I had the Breakfast Club Special #2 and chocolate milk. Very good.

This afternoon had a lot of frontage road riding next to interstate I-55, but also trail riding from Farmersville to Waggoner on Green Diamond Rail-Trail. That was from 5:43pm to 6:17pm. It's getting late already!

Still pleasant riding as it got close to sunset, which is when it was most obvious that the sun was hazy.

There are several different campgrounds overseen by the city of Litchfield at Lake Lou Yaeger: horse camp, full-service camp, and primitive. I arrived at Primitive Campground at 8:20pm. Campground host Wes welcomed me. I could set up anywhere. It was dark at the sites, thanks to all the trees. Tent set up was no problem, thanks to my headlamp. Sending out an "I've arrived" email to my wife (an a few others) was a problem this evening, due to almost no cell signal. It finally went through.

All set for a good night's sleep.

Jeff

Spent: $14.14 plus $3 (breakfast) + $20 (campsite) = $37.14