Day 26: Marion, IL to Chester, IL (70 miles, 1266 total)

BLASTING MILES!

We went to bed planning to stop by some bike shops in Carbondale, so A.K. could see if she could find a pair of more comfortable bike shorts. Since the bike shops did not open until 10, and we were only about 17 miles from Carbondale, we decided to sleep in until 6:30 and take our time getting ready for the day. After a lousy complimentary breakfast, we got on the road at about 8:15.

Just outside of Carbondale, I managed to get a large staple lodged in my front tire. We had hoped we had gotten past our "jinx" of the flats the day before, but apparently not. Since it was already pretty hot, and we were so close to town, I decided to not pull the staple out. The tire seemed to be holding air well enough, and I knew that if I pulled it out, the tire would flat instantly. So, I carefully rode the last few miles into town.

We got into town at about 9:30 and found two bike shops across the street from one another. We got to work on fixing my flat and shortly after finishing, one of the bike shops opened early. The first store had a very limited women's selection, so we crossed the street to the next. After about 20 minutes, A.K. walked out with new shorts and we had a tube of Chamois Butter and freshly pumped-up tires.

From there we headed out of town towards Murphysboro on a really piece of junk road. It is full of pot-holes and divits that sneak up on you and do a number on your wheels. When we arrived in town, I asked a man towing a John Deere tractor where a good place to eat was. Right around the corner we found a nice little family resturant. We had burgers, lots of water and refilled almost all of our waterbottles (the water from the hotel tasted like dirt).

Speaking of the hotel in Marion, we got a great deal on the room thanks to A.K.. When we arrived I asked the man for the cheapest rate we could get. He quoted us 58 bucks. Meanwhile, A.K. flipped through a traveler coupon book sitting on the counter. Inside the catalog, A.K. found a coupon for 39 bucks and asked the man if we could use it. His response, "Well, you didn't tell me you had a coupon." Hey, thanks for the tip buddy!

Anyway, in the resturant we hashed out a plan to catch our flights from St. Louis next thursday. Thanks to our shortcut yesterday, we have found ourselves in a good position. We plan to compress seven days of riding in our guidebook into six days and arrive in Pittsburg, KS. From there we will rent a car from Joplin, MO and drive to St. Louis. We found a bike shop in Pittsburg that is willing to tune-up our bikes and store our stuff. Now, all we have to do is find a ride from Pittsburg to Joplin (~20 miles away). Anyway, having a plan put us in high spirits and we were ready to bike another 40 miles to Chester. Plus, we realized that we should have no problem getting back on schedule since we should be able to gain a day on the guidebook every week, so we were happy and ready to ride.

We chose to take an alternate route to Chester that took us along the Mississippi River Levee. It is a bit longer than the standard route, but it is flatter, so we were sold.

The route took us into Gorham where we mailed back our third completed map. Woohoo! From there we found ourselves on an empty farm road. For the first time since we started in Yorktown, A.K. and I had the opportunity to ride side-by-side and chat for miles. It was really quite nice. We rolled passed huge cornfields and wheatfields and saw only about 3 cars. I did have to spray three angry dogs that charged us though. Unfortunately for them, I perfected my aim in Kentucky. In fact, I think these dogs were from Kentucky. They all had fake looking tans and Slim-Jims.

The weather was hot and humid; we found ourselves running low on water as we rode along the levee. Unfortunately, this alternate route didn't take us along our usual places to find water, so we planned to knock on a door and ask for some.

From the levee we got our first view of the Mississippi River and Missouri! The river is brown and fast moving up here, and it was exciting to see Missouri. We will get into there tomorrow morning. Blasting through this state!

Eventually, we arrived in the tiny town of Rockwood where we hoped to score some water. We were happy to find a water tap behind the local post office. It was cool and refreshing, and we soaked it up.

We were 8 miles from Chester, and found ourselves climbing several hills in a row to get into town. By the way, every state seems to give us a series of tough hills just before we leave. It's like a "thanks for coming" gift. Anyway, as we climbed into town (which is the home of Popeye, by the way), I crested a hill and waited for AK. As she arrived, she pointed out some nasty looking clouds on the horizon that I had not even noticed. Up until then we have had blue skies all day. I said I needed food because I was running low on energy; she said we needed to get moving, now!

We biked about another mile and found a gas station. Inside, AK asked for directions to a hotel (she said this was not the weather to camp in) while I grabbed a Gatorade and a Snickers.

As we stepped outside, the wind whipped the door out of my hand. It seemed to come out of nowhere; when we entered the store it was calm, and we had only been inside a few minutes. It had gotten nasty in minutes, no rain yet, but it was very dark and windy. A.K. yelled the directions to the hotel a few miles down the road and we got moving as fast as possible.

I started feeling a bit scared; I'd never seen sudden weather like this before, so I pedalled like mad in the wind. I didn't want to leave A.K. behind so I kept checking on her in my mirror. She was right behind me, so I figured I wasn't going fast enough and I pedalled faster. I was going all-out and AK was right on my tail. I have never seen her ride so fast. She probably would have passed me if I wasn't in the way. Our bikes were blown to the point of near instability as we pedalled. A good samaritan in a car yelled to AK that he'd follow us to the hotel to make sure we made it. Finally, we arrived at the Best Western and a huge bolt of lightning ripped across the sky minutes later. Within 15 minutes the rain was dumping down. AK said that adrenaline had her pedaling so fast and had left her shakey. I guess I didn't know enough to be that scared.

We had planned to eat our Chicken-Helper that we have been carrying for days tonight, but due to the storm we had to settle for delivery. It was fabulous. We had pasta, salad and brownies and ice cream. Tip-top.

Once the storm cleared, we climbed into our first hot-tub of the trip. Spectacular!

Jeff