Rolling Hills of West KY

We are currently in Murphysboro, IL and this afternoon we will bike along the Mississippi River to Chester, IL. Tomorrow we head into Missouri and the Ozarks. Carleton Geologists: Kristin is excited for this stretch because we'll visit some of the Missouri fieldtrip stops.

After we left Berea, KY we biked through rolling farmlands until we camped at Lincoln Homstead SP. We think this is maybe where Abraham Lincoln's family homesteaded, but not him because the next day we passed signs for Lincoln's birthplace and boyhood home. From the Lincoln Homestead we decided to push hard for the next three days to make it to Goreville, IL by Sat. morning at 9:00am to pick up Nick's 2nd long sleeve jersey at the post office.

Our first of the three days we passed through Buffalo, KY and picked up some molasses cookies from Kristin's mom at the post office. We also stopped at a Dollar General in Sonora. We'd passed by a lot of Dollar Generals not knowing what they were. They have a huge selection and played disco music while we shopped. We bought two dinners we were so excited. We didn't end up eating either dinner for three days. We ended our first of the three long days at 94 miles with Arnold, Lucy and Lauren at the Double L gas, grocery and service station. They've been unofficially and now officially hosting bicyclists since 1993. We joined them for dinner that included fresh vegetables from their giant garden. It was a great meal with good conversation.

The next day we passed through the Rough River Recreation Area. The police there were not very nice. We passed a lot of eastbound cyclists that day and enjoyed swapping stories. We ended the day 96 miles on in Sebree, KY. We arrived at a bicycle hostel to find mattresses to sleep on, couches and a tv to catch up on news and weather, a washing machine and best of all, our second home cooked meal in a row. It was the basement of a Baptist church in their youth center. We joined the pastor and his wife, Bob and Violet, for dinner. They feed every bicyclist who comes along. The food was fantastic and they had amazing stories of the bicyclists they had met. This included a few cyclisits going around the world. They topped off the night with vanilla ice cream and fresh peaches.

Yesterday we left Sebree, KY and took the ferry across the Ohio River to enter Illinois! We went 101 miles and passed the 1,000 mile mark for the trip so it was a big day. We started the day with three hours of rain which wasn't too bad. Except for the puddles in our shoes. We camped for the night 12 miles outside of Goreville, IL and had more rain through the night.

Today we made it to the post office and had breakfast at Delaney's in Goreville. We had a great egg, cheese and sausage biscuit and lots of sweet tea. The restaurant was very friendly to bicyclists and offered everyone that was touring free dessert. We had apple pie a la mode at 8:30 in the morning. It was delicious. They also took polaroids of all the bicyclisits that came through so now we have a picture of us under a glass tabletop in Goreville.

The count

30--number of minutes (paid!) we have to write this post
0--flats
1125--miles ridden so far
15--days we've been on the road
1--Buffalo sighting, and we're not to Yellowstone yet.
2 more turtles saved from the road. People in Kentucky seem to like to hit turtles on the road. It's sad.

But Kentuckians are also great hosts to cyclists. Off to Missouri.