Up this morning at 5am hit the road at 6:50. 66 degrees and cloudy….nice morning, but it got hot later in the day!
Last night as I was cleaning my bike and oiling the chain I noticed I had another broken spoke on my rear wheel. I don’t think I’ve ever broken a spoke on a bicycle in my life and now three thus far on this trip. Fortunately, this one was on the side away from the sprocket so I was able to change it without needing a tool to remove the rear cassette (gears). I had picked up 3 spare spokes at the bike shop that replaced my spokes last time. There is a bike shop in Carbondale that I’ll be passing the day after tomorrow…I think I’ll stop in and pick up a tool to remove the rear cassette and a few more spokes—-got me paranoid now…some places out west I’ll be 75-80 miles between services and hundreds of miles from a bike shop, so don’t need broken spokes and no way to fix them out there. Guess that comes with carrying 40 or so pounds on the back of the bike plus my weight….that’s a lot of pressure going over railroad tracks and bumps in the road. I would guess the total weight of my bike with everything on it is around 75-80 pounds—I need to slow down going over rough stuff.
You’re not going to believe this so I took a picture, but this morning for the third straight morning I saw a man walking on the road toward me out in the middle of nowhere…was about 8 miles out of Sebree and 4 miles to Dixon….nothing in between and he was just strolling down the road….just said “hi” when I rode by. These ain’t dirt country roads where he may be walking to his barn or something….this is a main paved road running between two little towns. Strange.
Stopped at the Classic cafe for breakfast….attached to Marathon gas station. More flies in this place than you can count…a lady was running around swatting the with a fly swatter….kept counting how many she had killed—was up to 46 by the time I left. She was talking to a regular and told him someone told her to put Pennies in a jar of water (or maybe vinegar) and that would kill them…said she put 2 in there yesterday, but that didn’t work….she’s going to put 5 in tonight 🙂 Actually had a fly land on my pancake and get stuck in the syrup—had to pick it off. I ate around that spot. Worst breakfast I’ve had this trip—avoid the Classic Cafe in Dixon KY.
My Garmin kept telling me to “Go West” all day—and I paid how much for that? 🙂
Passed this mornings by a tractor trailer with two huge blue water tanks on the back…assume it was delivering water to a farm house….reminded me of when we were first looking for a house in KY, we looked at one way back in the sticks in Jessamine county—was a church converted to a home that had a water tank you had to refill. Man am I glad we didn’t buy that!
For the past three days been hearing Bob Whites calling all morning in the fields….haven’t heard those since a kid back in the 70s.
10am and 33 miles down….already getting hot, but there is a nice cool breeze that feels good….10 miles to Marion for some cold refreshments.
Passed a work crew from the local jail out in their orange jumpsuits picking up trash on the side of the road. They were being followed by a fat man in a truck with his AC blasting, no doubt. Reminded me of a scene from Cool Hand Luke. They all shouted encouragement and best wishes as I passed by….it was HOT by now.
Stopped at the Main Street Italian Grill in Marion, KY. Having pizza and lots of unsweetened ice tea….it was a long, hot ride here this morning. Love these small town cafes where I can park my bike outside the front windows and keep an eye on it while I eat…drank at least a gallon of ice tea.
About a mile from the Ohio river I see a line of cars heading toward me in the distance….that told me they had just gotten off the ferry (the only way across the river here), so I shifted into high gear and peddled like mad to get there before it pushed off….made it….was the last one on about 2 minutes before departing. There was a huge concrete truck on there that had passed me about 2 miles back and he had to be going 100 miles an hour—took a little satisfaction in knowing we were going across the river at the same time 🙂
I sort of felt guilty, like I was cheating or something, by riding the ferry across….felt like I should have at least been sitting on my bike and peddling like the cyclist in The Triplets of Bellevue 🙂 Great movie, by the way—if you haven’t seen it I would highly recommend it whether you’re a bicyclist or not—one of June’s and my favorites.
After getting off the ferry I stopped to rest for a bit in town, then when I got on my bike heading out of town I got lost for a bit—then it hit me…no more 76 bike signs. I had been spoiled in VA and KY where there were 76 bike route signs marking virtually every turn. Well, Illinois didn’t get the memo, so no more signs—I’ll have to pay closer attention to my maps and GPS now.
Heading out of Cave-in-Rock toward Elizabethtown (Illinois not KY) the road parallels the Ohio River and there was just something about that 8 mile stretch of road that felt a little creepy—sort of like a scene from the movie deliverance 🙂 So, I cycled through that as fast as I could and toward the end as I topped a hill there was a sign that said “cyclist rest stop. Fresh water” well, I’m sure it was fine, but I decided I had plenty of water and wasn’t tired, so just kept going 🙂
Got to Elizabethtown and it’s nothing like Elizabethtown KY….just a run down little country town. I was looking for a place to buy Gatorade and orange juice and in this little strip of town I saw a sign on one side of the street for a Bar and on the other side was for a “Family Package Store” with drive up window—behind that was a beer sign….I think I captured that entire scene in one photo below 🙂 From my experience a package store is a liquor store, but I’ve never seen a “family” liquor store—guess they don’t just sell Jack Daniels to mom and dad—they service the entire family :-). Figured they didn’t have what I needed there but stopped at a gas station on down the road to get what I needed…including some Beanee Weenees and crackers for tonight just in case I have to rough it 🙂
The next 8 miles were terrible—on a main highway with nothing but steep climbs and no scenery….it was hot and miserable. Then the last 9.5 miles to Eddyville was better scenery, but the climbs were ridiculous—see the climb I’m pointing to in the elevation profile pic—it was an absolute KILLER climb—it looks straight up in the pic and it is in real life….thought I was going to die and this came at about the 81 mile mark….as steep as anything we did in the Appalachians. I saw where Rob posted that someone told him these were the little Ozarks—if these are little, I’m not looking forward to the Ozarks in Missouri.
Got to Eddyville, where I’m staying at the Hayes Canyon Campground. It’s a horse riding “resort”. The owner—who talks like John Wayne—told me I could camp or I could stay in the little cowboy church (a metal building) they have either one for $12. I picked the church.
A long, hard day of climbing in the heat. Just for reference, I’ve probably been at around 500-600 feet above sea level all day, but my Garmin tells me that over the 89 miles I rode today I had a total ascent of 5,780 feet (with 5,508 feet of descent). That’s just up and down all day and rivals some of the Virginia days. I burned 5,593 calories today.
A good day, but I’m tired—feeling strong though!
