Tunnel Hill Bike Trail

This is the Tunnel Hill Trail in Illinois.

We left off our story on Monday July 9, still at Aunt Carolyn's house, doing laundry and culling through the panniers to lighten the load.  Sometime in the early afternoon we took to the road and drove to Chester IL, which is just across the Mississippi River from MO.  I had mixed feelings about driving across the bridge - it seemed that that milestone should be ridden - but once I saw the actual deck on the bridge, I felt fine about passing up that opportunity.  The roadway was a very narrow 2 lanes with no pretense of a serviceable sidewalk; in a word precarious, maybe downright dangerous.  I'm sure that I would have been fine had I insisted on riding, but it really didn't matter.

Chester is the home of Popeye the Sailor, well the creator of Popeye came from here anyway.  The local chapter Fratenal Order of the Eagles has a cyclists bunkhouse built adjacent to the lodge, so that is where we were dropped off.  Monday is volleyball night at the lodge, and apparently draws players from all over the county, who come to participate in a volleyball league.  At first it seemed like we would have the bunkhouse to ourselves, but after a while, 4 westbound riders came along, so we had company for part of the evening as well as someone else's farts stinking the place up.  Hey, it was about a 10'x12' room with 6 guys sleeping in it; it's what we do!

We learned a lesson after the days off in and around Denver, that we got pretty soft after 3 days, so we expected it this time, and planned for an easy day on the 10th.  Boy are we smart.  Well, we would have stopped even sooner than we did, but I noticed that I had a broken spoke.  Not quite sure where or when it happened, but there it was, an the rear wheel.  I probably could have properly fixed it myself, but it would have been an ordeal and we were nearing Carbondale which, being a proper college town, had 3 proper bicycles shops all within a block of each other, so off to Carbondale it was.  We pulled into Phownix Bicycles and that's where we met Joe.  He fixed my wheel and then asked if we needed a place to stay.  Joe has done 2 cross country tours, one with panniers and riding LOTS, and once as a group leader for the MS ride.  That ride has lots of ridsers, 2 big sag wagons, no panniers for anyone, and the leaders alternate days of riding and driving the vans.  Joe was a terrific host.  Just hosting us makes him terrific.  He was also able to steer us to the first honest to goodness tasty pizza of our trip.

The 11th found us rising a little late, having Carbondale's best breakfast at Harbaugh's and generally hitting the road a little late.  We rode about 70 miles to Golconda, which is situated right on the banks of the Ohio River.  We pulled into town later than we like, sometime after 5:00, went into the local bar & grill to find something to eat, and the locals there informed us that the campground we had planned to go to was closed.  Just about that time, the thunder and lightning picked up significantly and then we had a significant downpour that lasted for perhaps 30 minutes before it began to taper off.  It was still raining just a little as we set up the tent, but more important, there was still a lot of lightning in the general area; we therefore, chose our campsite carefully, with the possibility of lightning in mind.  It was our turn to try our hands at being bridge trolls.  Unfortuantely, the bridge that we selected was a pedestrian bridge about 30 feet above our heads, so when we finally got a little foot traffic above us we couldn't scramble up quickly enough to eat anyone!

When we got up this morning, even though the temperature was probably not much above 70, everything was so wet from the dew that we broke a sweat just taking down the tent.  What we missed in the Ozarks was the constant up and down and up and down and up and down.  Well, we've got it here, along with humidity to go along with it.

We rode to Cave In Rock IL, where there used to be quite a thriving pirate industry, at least that's what we have been told.  Unfortunately, there is very little time to investigate the local history such as this.  We are on a time table, and we need to get to Delaware soon, so my knowledge of local piracy on the Ohio River will have to come by way of wikipedia.  There is no bridge at Cave In Rock, but there is a sweet little ferry that can accommodate perhaps 20 automobiles and even more bicycles, and better yet, there is no toll!

So here we are in beautiful Marion Kentucky.  At various places along the route there are churches that open their doors and allow cyclists to sleep inside, free of charge.  It seems that more often than not, those churches are of the United Methodist variety.  Riley & I have yet to take advantage of this hospitality, but we will be doing so tonight.  When we got to town, Riley went to the library while I investigated our lodging arrangements.  The route map didn't say anything about this particular church, but I spotted a small sign on the way into town.  The route map does say that camping is allowed at the city park, so I wanted to figure out whether we should head to the park or to the church.  My primary criteria was the availability of showers.  I went first to the church and met the janitor Robert.  Robert gave me all the info, including the fact that there were indeed showers (and sofas to sleep on) and that was all I needed to hear.  Besides, the park was another half-mile out of our way, and every little bit counts!

That's about all of the news that's fit to report.  It is now 6:20, and it looks like it will rain again this evening - at least to the same extent that it did last night, so all the more reason to choose indoors rather than out!  It's about a 2 block walk from the Italian cafe where we are dining back to the church, so it's time to get moving, before we're forced to sing the B.J. Thomas classic from the Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid soundtrack.  You know the one.

Dale