Journal Entry #7
31 July 2001
Woo Hoo... One and a one half states
left...As I write from Bardstown many thoughts cross my mind... Let me
share...
Illinois, two days.
Coming into Illinois from Farmington was
pretty incredible. Dan was ahead of us so that he could have Saturday
off, so Steve, Paul and I biked by ourselves for two days. From Chester
IL we biked on the Mississippi levee which was awesome cause there was
NO traffic and completely flat. Another cool part was that the corn is
tall enough to block the wind and keep you from seeing the road go on
and on and...well you get the point. It also brought thoughts of next
summer...we will have to change our name though... Men on Rafts...
(Think Huck Finn) ;)
We stayed in Carbondale which is a pretty
good sized town. They don't like bikers in City Parks too much
there...so we tried to work the MoJo while gorging ourselves at the
CHINESE SUPER BUFFET (screamed as if at a wrestling competition) but no
one spoke English to us. We assumed some of the customers did, but they
only gave us funny "did you realize that is spandex you have
on" looks. So being resourceful as we are, stayed near a school
building. It was kinda cozy in the 1000000 degree 100000% humidity
behind the dumpster across from the other two dumpsters kiddy corner to
the Catapiller front end loaders and bulldozers... You see the school
was under renovation, when we woke up and it was light we found out is
was a "special" renovation...removing asbestos. If we get sick
later in life remind us of this...
It was one of those nights that was never
forgotten, the swarm of mosquitoes knocking on the screen of the tent
and the sound of water...I mean sweat...sloshing back and forth in the
tent and the feeling of sweat oozing down your body onto your sleeping
pad made the showerless night WONDERFUL... (please note extreme sarcasm)
10 hours in the tent and 3 hours of sleep
and later...rain... Well, that made the tent warmer when we had to put
the rain fly on and made us even more sticky and gross... Man I love
this game...When do we eat?
So we got up, and made the wheels go
round. Eventually caught up to Dan at Cave in Rock on the Ohio River.
Thoughts of sleeping on the ferry tempted us but the 70% rain chance
kept our mischievous ways at bay... So we slept on the picnic tables
after saying goodnight to the police officers who came to check on the
vagrants at the ferry dock. That nights sleep; much better. Enjoyed free
showers at the State Park --"Which are for Camper Use Only" --
we camped...somewhere else.
6:30 AM crossed the river on the best 1/2
mile ever. Flat and under someone else's power...doesn't that break the
rules somewhere??? Anyway then on to McD's for Breakfast Buffet!!! $4.76
for as many breakfast favorites as you want. Dan liked the most...heck
he gave Paul a run for his money!!!!
We then made our way to Utica, but 5
miles away we sat and talked to the locals about the Tornado that was
spotted just north of Utica. It was headed South West. We where coming
from the West... We figured it would be best to wait a little. After
arriving in town and noticing the saturated city the jokes about having
to make up miles if we where thrown by the tornado stopped. But the
jokes about riding through 4 inches of flooded road began!
Some people we met in Sebrea who are
biking Westbound, told us that they heard bikers could stay in the Fire
House so we went to check it out. John and Chris met us at the door. Not
sure if we mentioned them before, but we originally met these two in
Baker City. They biked a longer day when we took a rest day and had been
ahead of us until now. We had been hearing that we were close to them
because people mentioned seeing them, but didn't think we would catch
them. They sure were a sight for sore eyes...I am tired of looking at
Steve, Paul and Dan's tail ends!!! We have ridden with them since and
are planning to finish together. Slowly but surely they are making
cattle leaner, and are learning the ways of the MoJo...
John is 22 and is working on his
Doctorate in Philosophy at Colorado University. He, like me rides fast
so we wait for others a lot...gives me someone to talk to. Chris who is
23 is working on his Bachelors in Physics at Colorado State. It is
amazing how well we all get along and it is great to have expanded our
conversation topics to include people who haven't heard all of the same
stories...
We have started a turtle relocation
program to prevent many of them from becoming Road Kill Turtle Soup. The
principle is quite simple. We pick them up, place them on the B.O.B.
(bungeed in of course, for safety reasons) and relocate them about 20
miles down the road. They then have been relocated...Man we have great
games...
John and I were ahead on the Funeral Home
benches waiting, when one of the Amish carriages that were parading by
surprised us. There where two attractive ladies our age in one of the
carriages...We were doing sit-ups (to improve our girlish figure) when
they went past, BUT THEY DID A DOUBLE TAKE TO CHECK US OUT THROUGH THE
BACK OF THE CARRIAGE!!! I still can't believe it happened but man, is it
funny!!!
We have under 850 miles until we finish
and eleven days until the champagne and crazy antics begin. Well, I
guess the crazy antics have been going on for the last 48 days... But
our bikes will be in the ocean then. The feeling of bittersweet
continues to grow as the end draws near. I can shave two more times on
this trip and then we will have to go back to real world activities and
responsibilities :( Until then we live by the philosophy,
"Live each day to the fullest for we know how much it will suck in
12 days."
Ride On...
Jason, Steve, Paul, Dan...and I guess
Chris and John too!!!