Days 18 & 19: Beating the Heat

Day 18: Carbondale, IL to St. Mary, MO (67 miles)
Day 19: St. Mary, MO to Ellington, MO (100.7 miles)

Woohoo! It was Alix's first century yesterday. Which we did, well, just because we felt like it. :)

Proof

We awoke two days ago to an empty house, as our host had left in the wee hours of the morning to wrangle interns and count birds. We gathered  all our things, had an excellent cup of iced coffee, and headed out of Carbondale.

The ride that morning took us through fields of wheat and corn and soybeans. They were beautiful (except the soybeans) but would have been rather unexciting if not for a glowy sheen that seemed to sparkle from our surroundings. Must have been that big Midwestern sky!

After a morning ride and breakfast stop, we arrived in Chester, IL. There we found a Dollar General, a grocery store, and a little health food store, where we stopped and chatted to the cashier for a bit. After purchasing the ingredients for another weird salad at the grocery, we noticed a sign in the window of a Mexican restaurant advertising margaritas for $1.25! We couldn't pass that deal up, and we ended up assembling our entire meal inside the restaurant while enjoying tiny (but cheap and refreshing) margaritas. The waiters were quite entertained by us and even brought us free tequila shots. We figured it counted as an early celebration for the Mississippi crossing we'd be making later that afternoon!

Margaritas for the second time on this trip!

Doesnt everyone bring their own food to restaurants?

Our Mississippi crossing later that evening was glorious. One big bridge and we were in the state of Missouri! We rode past the Popeye museum on the way (Chester is apparently the home of Popeye!). It was flat, flat, flat on the other side. We weren't able to snap a photo of the Big River, but we hope you can imagine it.

We climbed up into the foothills of the Ozark that night, headed to a little town called St. Mary. When we got there, we ended up knocking on someone's door to ask for tent space (the church we had gone to hadn't had good land for camping). The couple who answered the door ended up opening up a church building for us! We got to spend the night in luxury, with bathrooms and even hot water. 

We woke up at 5 the next morning to beat the heat, and ended up watching a beautiful sunrise from the church parking lot.

Sunrise in St. Mary's

The ride that morning was long and hilly, with lots of steep rollers. Pretty fun though! The landscape was finally getting interesting.

View through a vinyard

By the time we stopped for breakfast in Farmington, Alix was starving (and wanted coffee). So, we made a rare trip to a little cafe in town. We ended up sitting outdoors, picnicking with our food and theirs. The folks working there were very kind, very talkative, and eager to have business since the restaurant was still new. They were very attentive, and we're really glad we ended up where we did. The restrooms were also super cool (see photo below). What's more, some nice older women who were chatting inside ended up paying for our meal! That's two out of two diner meals paid for by wonderful strangers. We're worried that if we go to another restaurant for breakfast, we might break our streak!

Womens restroom at the little cafe

Lambsquarters growing out of a brick wall! Sonja had some for breakfast. (Outside the cafe in Farmington)

That afternoon, our ride took us to Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park, which we had heard had an excellent swimming hole. We found that to be true, and joined the crowds in the water after eating a picnic lunch. It turns out that the whole park was named for the swimming area, a series of natural "shut-ins" where (as a park worker told us) the "water is shut in between the rocks, and the rocks are shut in between the mountains". We thought that was kinda the definition of any river in the mountains, but go figure. At any rate, the swimming was excellent and we wish we had had time to stay longer.

Swimming hole at Johnson's Shut-ins State Park

Apparently the whole park is named for the water being "shut in" between the rocks...

Delicious Mexican-themed glop

More of Johnson's Shut-ins

We decided while at the park that we would ride the extra miles to get to cyclist's only lodging we had heard about in Ellington. We were tired from a long day of pedaling, but we made it (up some more steep hills), and rode a century in the process!

We made a trip to the grocery store for some (aka lots of) vaguely Mexican-themed food (canned greens mixed with refried beans, anyone?), which we ate in front of the cute little shack that the town's Chamber of Commerce had built for cyclists. No one else was there, which was fine because we were exhausted and the place wasnt big enough for more than a couple of people. But it was cozy and even had a shower and air conditioning! We're not sure what made the town want to do this, but we love them for it. No service to blog, so we went to sleep pretty early that night.

Overall, an eventful two days!