Started riding a little bit outside Ozora, MO and made it to Murphysboro, Illinois, this was a test ride to see if Skip's back would allow him to ride. He seemed to do well. There were only a few hills, short little grunts, but nothing like the Ozarks!
We crossed the Mississippi into Chester, Illinois, which claims to be the birthplace of Popeye! The creator of Popeye apparently hailed from Chester at some point, possibly his birthplace.
Illinois was great, we road on mostly little used back roads through farmland, but unlike the KS agribusiness farms, these were smaller farms with scenic houses and barns. Murphysboro itself was a bit anti-climactic, but it marked a turning point in the trip, because we were about to SAG over a section from Murphysboro, IL to Berea, KY that Skip had ridden previously. We started the journey that afternoon and 6 miles into Indiana, the RV blew a flat. We waited for several hours on the interstate for the RV equivalent of AAA to come help. Skip decided to find help
himself and picked up a couple of locals to help us. They put air back in the tires and got us on the road again, they were really sweet to help us on a Saturday, when even the "professionals" wouldn't!
I caught a nice sunset that night at a state park in Indiana.
We had several steep climbs and on the first we passed by fields of cows, which is normal, but as we rode by one particular cow gave a sound like a cough or even a crow. It was by far the weirdest sound I'd ever heard out of a cow before! We stopped for lunch after 48 miles and I was cold, so I changed into warmer and more waterproof clothing, and wouldn't you know it after 5 miles the sun came out and I was sweating like crazy and starting to overheat. A
s we neared our destination we approached a crazy intersection, Skip saw a car coming and braked really fast and I didn't have time to react, so I hit my breaks but ended up hitting his rear tire. I crashed, he had apparently stopped so luckily I didn't knock him over. It was my first crash of the trip and really on a bike since i was like 12. It hurt, but it really wasn't that bad, I was more startled than anything. I had my share of bruises and stiffness, but not too many scrapes and my bike survived pretty well. There were some really nice people who saw and came to see if I was "okay". We had to ride 6 more miles to Rural Retreat, and I thought my arm was going to fall off it hurt bad to put weight on it, but we made it after what seemed like the slowest 6 miles ever. To make myself feel better I bought a bunch of little debbie snacks and candy, they wanted me to buy ice, but I decided gaining 5 pounds would make me feel better than ice.
