Day 9 Shelbyville, IL

May 25, 2018

Today we had a duo of extremes on our trip so far- it was both the longest and hottest day of riding. We rode 66.3 miles from Paris to Shelbyville and the temperature reached 94 F.

We walked around downtown Paris last night. It has a healthy business district and a beautiful old county courthouse.

We left the Red Oak B&B after breakfast and headed west - into the wind.

We rode through farms to Kansas, IL. There was an interesting encounter just before we got to Kansas. A man pulled over and got out of his car to take our picture as we rode past. Of course we had to stop and talk to him. He said bike touring was a dream of his and he wanted to hear about our trip. He was very nice and wanted to contribute to our trip. We tried to decline, saying we were just traveling for fun, not fund raising, but he insisted that we take some money for lunch on him. We're sorry that we didn't get his name, but it was a memorable meeting.

After yesterday's picture of the bike from Montezuma, KS in Montezuma, IL, we couldn't pass up the chance to get a picture in Kansas, IL.

We took a rest break at the County Junction in Kansas and met the owners Mary and Darren. They were very nice folks and won our hearts by giving us a free refill on our Diet Coke.

We've been posting a bunch of pictures of farms and crops. All those huge farms need some serious farm equipment. Today was passed a dealer with all this.

All that grain also needs to be stored and shipped. Every little town has large grain elevators.

There weren't many other buildings in the tiny town of Ashmore, IL. I saw this old telephone building, but these guys came whizzing by just as I was trying to take a picture!

It was a long, hot day and we were glad to get to hour hotel at almost 5PM. Team A scouted out a good Chinese buffet for dinner, then we walked to a local market for breakfast provisions.

Today's ride: 66 miles (106 km)
Total: 426 miles (686 km)

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