Today since we needed to get the Jeep
to the start of the ride we drove the designated trail to see if we
would encounter any closures or surprises. Some of the roads were
quite narrow (one lane) and there were long desolate stretches, and
once again there were 0 towns. The wind was picking up from the SE
and guess what our direction was … yes SE into the head winds. We
were glad we had filled all 7 water bottles. When we arrived at
Odell we searched for the town grocery store, thinking that would be
a good place to park the jeep. As we turned in to the main part of
town we saw other cyclist (young men) preparing to ride just outsied
a local cafe! We elected to park by the cafe and find out what they
were planning. We introduced ourselves and asked what they were
doing. Turns out the were riding the same route we were however they
were doing the entire US Northern tier from Seattle to Maine. They
had completed 2800 of the 4400 mile route! They are doing it as a
fund-raiser for scholarships for their university, Grove City
College. They had planned it for a year and got some funding for the
college and a sag wagon. They asked if we wanted to join them today
but we said we would not want to slow them down. They gave us their
card and said the cafe was the best place to grab a bite. Here is
their website in case you are interested teamgcc.com
We put Zin in her trailer just outside the window and sat down at
Misty's Wishing Well cafe. This was a single owner who was the
waitress, cook and clean up (among other things). Breakfast was
quite tasty and hit the spot! Good call guys!
We also asked Misty if it was OK to
leave our car there as well, she said just move it down a bit and it
would be fine. We attached the dogs trailer to Kevin's bike, said
farewell to the guys, and said we would she them again as we
expected them to pass us like lightening on the road!
The route:
We knew what to expect from our recon
drive to the start. Kevin pulled Zin the first 13 miles, Corn, beans,
farm houses, and a whole lot of nothing in every direction. At one
point we paused at an intersection of 2 x00 roads and each way looked
exactly the same. Reminded us of an opening or ending of a Steven
King Novel or some Twilight Zone episode. Kevin was getting sleepy
even, as if being possesed, perhaps he was hypnotized by the endless
corn rows who knows. He swapped the trailer with Theresa and then
set the draft for her to catch so the pace would not be so hypnotic.
We plugged along at about 10mph top end ( that was the best Theresa
could produce). Even the draft generated by passing cars or semis
only brought us up to about 11mph. One more swap about 8 miles out
back to Kevin and our 38 miles for the day was complete. We were
done my 11:30.
Stats:
Day 13 of riding, 38 miles, 10.6mph
avg, total trip miles 652 and 1866 calories burned for the days
ride.
Kevin's garmin stats:
After the Ride:
When we pulled into the park where the
RV was staged, we saw a van with bike racks and another cyclist. We
again introduced ourselves and asked what the event was. The said
they had about 8 folks that were going from the southern end of
Illinois to the northern end ( about 6 days). These folks where the
support group. We traded stories of other Bicycle rides including
RAGBRAI and then it was time to pack up and get going to the new
campsite. Theresa had made reservations at a place 8 miles north of
Henry (about 53 miles west on the route). So our drive was about 2
hours. Theresa got her laptop and mifi card out and began working
while Kevin drove the RV. We once again had to take a detour because
of construction, but the GPS recalculated and got us to Henry. We
piced up supplies at the only grocery store in town and headed to
Condits Ranch RV park. The terrain is a bit hilly near the campsite
so that will be a challenge. We checked in and docked the Smitanic
and turned the AC to full blast! Theresa continued to work as Kevin
fixed a great dinner of steak, corn on the cob and veggies... Yumm.
We opened our last bottle of wine noting we would need to stop
tomorrow on the way back to the campsite.
Tomorrow's plans:
Up early and start riding! NO
logistics as we just leave from here and bike to the jeep in Odell,
where we may have to have a late lunch at Misty's!
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