Up at 4:30 this morning….that sure comes early. A thunderstorm rolled in at 1:30 this morning so staying in the cowboy church building vs setting up my tent was a good idea. Don’t have internet or phone service this morning so am not sure what’s in store weather wise, but looks cloudy. Rolled at 5:30…Got a long ride ahead of me today.
No broken spokes yesterday 🙂
Turtle save #2 this trip about 7 miles in…have to admit, I’ve seen more than 2 during the trip but I was either going down a hill too fast to stop or going up a hill too steep to stop without falling over, so the others just had to fend for themselves.
Stopped in Goreville at about 28 miles for breakfast—another gas station cafe. This one was pretty good. Met another bicyclist here, Robbie, he is riding part of the route….going for two more days and stopping in Chester. Has done a lot of bike touring—got some tips for what to expect out west.
Rode with Robby to Carbondale….great ride and conversation. Made the hot miles go by a lot faster. I found a bike shop 3 miles off route and left my bike for them to look at while Robby and I found a cafe to have lunch…walked about a mile to the Sunny Street Cafe at the bike shop owners recommendation….good cafe, but we didn’t think it was a mile away. Initially I thought it was a mistake to walk that far until the lady actually brought me tea and left the entire picture on the table for us—I think she is used to thirsty bicyclist 🙂 Had chicken salad and a picture of tea….Robby only drank one glass….I finished off the picture 🙂
Sitting here in the Cafe and it’s 1pm…will probably be 2 pm by the time I get back on the road and still have 52 miles to Chester….going to be a long day.
Finished lunch at the cafe and huge storm clouds were moving in. Asked our waitress to take a quick picture of me and Robby outside then he jumped on his bike to head to his hotel and I opted for an Uber back to the bike shop…wasn’t about to walk another mile. The mechanic said my bike was in perfect condition, but being paranoid about breaking more spokes, I picked up a chain whip, and socket to remove the rear sprockets if I need to in future…they don’t have my size spokes so needed to go to another bike shop in town (there are three within 2 blocks) to get some after waiting out the thunderstorm for about an hour….it was coming down in buckets so waiting it out here in the Bike Surgeon bike shop….it’s 2:30 and I’m losing time to get to Chester tonight. If I can get out of here by 3 I should be able to make it….Getting out my maps to make other plans if I can’t get that far by dark—only 58 miles down so far today so don’t really want to stay here.
Well, the storm finally passed….I picked up spokes and was heading out of town at about 3:30 with about 50 miles to go. The reasonable side of my brain was saying, just stay here in Carbondale—58 miles is ok—and ride to Chester with Robby tomorrow….the crazy side was saying “you can make it…you have plenty of time before dark”. Well, it’s late as I write this blog post and I’m tired, so to make a long story short I went with the crazy side of my brain and pedaled like crazy—rolled into Chester at about 7:15 with daylight to spare 🙂
Grabbed a selfie of me and the Hamburgler in the town square—was too tired to look for Popeye. Went to the Subway shop and ate a turkey sub and drank about 5 classes of Diet Coke. Found the Eagle Hostel here in town—free bunk house and hot shower. There are two other riders here tonight—a father/daughter team doing the ride. Can’t remember their names at the moment, but we are all getting up at 4:30 in the morning and hitting the road at 5 so I’ll get their names then—they’re already in bed as I write this. I’ll also find Popeye to get a selfie with before rolling out in the morning.
A very long, hard day, but feeling strong! I’m going to bed! 🙂
