eLIFELIST.com Bike Trip

Day 19 July 18th.  

July 18th was pretty uneventful except for the sweat and heat.  Brent and I both agree that this was the hottest day we'd encountered and we couldn't recall ever sweating that much.  We wish there was some way to measure the amount of sweat we have everyday, it would be staggering. 

Ok, and Southern Illinois is definitely hilly, we ran into some monstrous hills that we weren't prepared for at all.   

We were on the road for about 10 miles and Brent had a flat and another broken spoke, we are becoming expert bike mechanics.  We fixed it and were back on the road in 30 minutes.  

Breakdown Tally:
6 Regular Tire Flats
2 Trailer Flats
1 Torn Tire
4 Broken Spokes
2 Chains

We arrived in Goreville, Illinois to eat at "Delaney's on Broadway" which was a great place.  We talked a little bit with the owner Sarah and her son Caulin.  It was great for us to cool down a little bit from the ridiculous humidity.  We took an extra long break in Goreville and that made it tough to get back on the bikes to finish out the 25 miles we had left to get to Carbondale.  We huffed it in to Carbondale, along the way we saw some bulls with full horns which was pretty amazing to see.  We rode through a beautiful forest right before Carbondale and came upon a lake called "The Devil's Kitchen Lake" and the breeze off the lake felt great.  

We arrived in Carbondale around 6:30, got seltted into our room at the Days Inn and then hopped on the bikes again to get some dinner at BW3's.  Wings, Ribs, Chicken Tenders, Fries and Beer hit the spot.  We were happy to be in Carbondale and looking forward to enjoying our day off on the 19th.  

Sebree Kentucky to Elizabethtown, IL.  July 17th

We had a great ride into Illinois, it was hot as could be with about a billion % humidity.  Coming out of Sebree we ran into an Australian family, the Smithwicks who were biking across the country together.  They started in LA and were riding to Manhattan.  They flew over from Australia to do the trip as a family.  The father was riding on a tandem bike with his 8 year old pedaling on the back and their 15 year old son was riding also.  Talk about testing your family bond!  They seemed pretty ready to get to New York.  We always as anyone we see coming from the west what we should be looking for, how were the Ozarks etc.  Everyone's response is different, the Australian family said the Ozarks were no problem, easy, but we ran into Jim earlier in the day riding from Oregon to Virginia with his wife and two daughters trailing him in a van and he said "The Ozarks are going to kick you guys butt."  

Not too long after we arrived in Marion Kentucky which was a really cool little town, we devoured a few sandwiches at the local Marion cafe and put a serious dent in the establishments water supply.  Afterwards we stuck around the town for a bit to greet some troops as they were returning from Iraq on a 15 month tour, a big group turned out from the town to cheer them in.  

From Marion we had about 13 mile ride to the Ohio river where we would take a ferry across into Illinois.  The ferry was great and lasted only about 5 minutes.  We rode on the ferry with Stefan who rides his motorcycle to work from Kentucky into Illinois everyday.  Stefan was in Iraq in the 90's for 3 years, he was a really nice guy and I quoted him as saying "Southern Illinois is known as the flatlands for us bikers."  Stefan was a nice guy and we enjoyed chatting with him but man the hills in Southern Illinois really surprised us.  

Once in Illinois we went to Cave-In Rock which is a small cave that looks right out at the Ohio River.  From there we booked it to Elizabethtown, IL because there looked to be a huge thunderstorm rolling in.  We got caught in the rain and were soaked for the last 5 miles.  Riding in the rain is really great actually, as long as there's no lightening or thunder rain riding is really refreshing and cool you off from the insane heat.  

We stayed at the River Rose Inn, which is a hot spot for cyclists to stay in Elizabethtown.  We were greet by Bruce who runs the place with his wife.  Elizabethtown was like going back in time, it was the most charming little river town you'll ever see.  The hotel was on main street and later that night there was rehearsal for the annual performance of the town's history.  They blocked off main street with two cars and rehearsed right in the middle of the street outside the River Rose Inn.  Bruce was all excited because "this year I get to play the bad guy, I get to kidnap someone!"

That night we ate dinner on the E-Town Fish shack which was a floating restaurant in the Ohio river.  Our waitress looked at us like we were crazy.  I had a cheeseburger, catfish sandwich, hush puppies and potato wedgies, it was the best meal we'd had in a while, so filling.  

Elizabethtown was a really beautiful place right on the river with so much charm and personality and we had a great time chatting with Bruce.