Heading out of the campground I was rudely greeted by some steep hills, but most of these were followed by a longer downhill so I could mostly propel myself up the next one. One in particular though topped out at 19%! At the top, a homeowner had put out a cyclists rest stop with shade, water, and phone charging. I didn't need any of that since it was still early in the day but I appreciated the resting.

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I continued down into nice little Elizabethtown. None of the restaurants seemed to be open so I headed to the gas station to replenish snacks and Gatorade. While there I spotted a nice breakfast burrito in the warmer but another customer swooped in before I could have my chance. I ended up chatting to someone who warned me of state highway 34 coming up and then off I went, down that same highway.

It wasn't really that bad, traffic was low except for occasional trucks but nothing much to note. The climbs up into Eddyville were hard and my phone had exhausted most of my standard playlists and had started playing James Blunt so I wasn't quite in hill climbing spirit. Eventually I reached the top and it was much flatter from then on.

The day was going fairly well but I hadn't stopped for any real food and my diet of m&ms and lollies was catching up on me so I pulled into the Tunnel Hill Dollar General for some real food. I'm liking these stores, they don't have fresh food but at least they always have cold drinks and food snacks.

I carried on up the hill into Barbara's Camping, just a cyclist camping spot run by a woman in a house just off the main route. We got to talking and she had moved down from Chicago and liked having the cyclists from all over the world come in and give her some of the international feel you'd get from a big city.

I ended up camping on a deck built on a little hill with another cyclist, James, who was heading east from Texas. We shared warnings of the different terrain ahead and got to setting up camp.

Barbara had installed an outdoor shower at the back of her property, so I got to cool off with a great view of the countryside. Definitely a highlight of this camping spot.

Once I started setting up my tent I realised something was very wrong. One of my tent poles was broken and wouldn't fit into the others. I tried duct-taping a tent stake as a splint but wasn't successful and my stakes wouldn't fit into the slots because of their hooked end. It was a very mild night and we were under shelter so I was planning to sleep just on the deck but James had come to my rescue. He had a good Leatherman multi tool and the pliers were strong enough to cut the hook off one of my spare pegs. We repaired the tent good enough to sleep and I retired for the night.

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I think tomorrow an easy day is in store, into Carbondale. I might get a new tent there but this actually seems strong enough to hold for the rest of the trip. James told me all the cyclists have been waved through a section of road that is closed so I'm taking his word for it, hopefully I can do the same.