June 16, 2012
Day 1: Lebanon, IL to West Dam Campground (near Carlyle, IL)
(By Jeff)
We were riding out of our driveway in Lebanon at about 8:15. We'd been up late the night before, marking items off the to-do list that had been expanding and contracting the last two months as we prepared for the move from Utah to Illinois, bought a new house, worked on selling the Utah house, finished work projects, and planned this bike trip.
We'd already decided to start off with some short days. Both of us are out of shape, and Joy's still getting used to her recumbent after years riding diamond frame bikes. Also, after three years in Utah, the Midwest humidity will take some getting used to.
We were on flat, almost completely empty farm roads as we rode east. We passed giant fields and the occasional farmhouse - there weren't too many good photo opportunities, but that didn't stop me from taking pictures of every vaguely interesting thing I saw.
Except for my picture-taking, and a berry-picking interlude along the side of the road, the morning passed uneventfully.
Around noon it had gotten terribly hot, so we stopped under a shade tree at an abandoned home site for a while. We were there quite a while, using the tent tarp as a blanket while I "rested my eyes", and Joy took a nap.
We didn't pass a single store or soda machine until we reached the intersection of Wring Road and Illinois 127. It was super-hot now, so we sat in the shade in front of a closed carpet store, whose soda machine was fortunately still operational (despite being covered with cobwebs.)
We had originally planned to ride about 2.5 miles on IL-127 before getting back on quiet back roads, but as I watched the heavy car and truck traffic whizz by, I became increasingly unnerved at the prospect of riding on it, even for just a few miles. So we looked at the map, and saw that if we could ride on the busy road for half a mile, we could get on a different back road, and change our route to something that was hopefully better. (My alternate plan was to walk the bikes about a mile through a cornfield, to avoid even a half mile on IL-127, but Joy vetoed that, for some reason.)
In the end, the dash on the busy, shoulder-less road wasn't that bad, although my adrenaline took over and I went faster and got further ahead of Joy than I had planned.
The rest of the way to the West Dam Campground at Carlyle Lake was pleasant. The large campground was almost full, and we got one of the last two sites. After reserving our spot, we rode out on a bike path, in search of the Dairy Queen we had heard about, for the traditional post-ride milkshakes. As my ice cream headache subsided, I amused myself by eavesdropping on the conversation of two good ol' boys in the next booth, as one described his horrible divorce. Obviously I was hearing only one side of the story, but she certainly sounded like a terrible, terrible woman, who had done Bubba very, very wrong.
Later, back at the campground, we met a nice older couple in one of the sites next to ours. The husband, Frank, loaned us his extension cord so we could charge some of the many electronic items I insisted on lugging along. Thanks, Frank!
After that, some of the other nearby campers became noisy, and I grew concerned that we would have trouble sleeping. My fears were soon confirmed (and then some). Stay tuned for tomorrow's entry, where Joy will describe the worst night of camping ever! (It involves Kevin Bacon.)
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Today's ride: 37 miles (60 km)
Total: 37 miles (60 km)
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