Days 15, 16, and 17

Sunday: Owensboro to Sebree (30 miles)
Monday: Sebree to Elizabethtown ("E'town") (67 miles)
Tuesday: E'town to Carbondale (80 miles)

Whew! So much to cover today.

We had a fabulous morning on Sunday with Amanda and Bryan, complete with solid bike maintenance and a stellar breakfast (bacon, eggs, and homemade waffles!). We really enjoyed riding part of our 30 mile ride with Bryan, and we were sad to say goodbye to our wonderful hosts. They showed us true Southern hospitality as we have rarely experienced before.

The trip to Sebree was perfect for our rest day - not too long and not too many hills. When we arrived in Sebree, we went straight to the Dollar General to buy our daily jar of pickles (of course). While we were standing outside eating out snack, a man who Sonja had seen in the store walked up and handed us $6, the contents of his wallet. He told us to buy a Coke or something and said he would have given us more if he had had it with him. What motivated him to do that, we'll never know, but people never cease to amaze us.

That night, we planned to stay at a local baptist church that offered shelter for cyclists. When we arrived, the preacher showed us our quarters, complete with mattresses, kitchen, bathrooms, a shower, and even laundry! Also a wall map where cyclists could pin their hometown and an exchange shelf with all sorts of gear. We ended up sharing the space with one other cyclist, also heading west, who we enjoyed getting to know. Apparently the preacher and his wife have passing cyclists into their home every night, as well (sometimes dozens at a time). We couldn't do this because of an event at the church, but the folks there went above and beyond to make sure we were comfortable had enough to eat. Amazing! We spent much of the afternoon feeling overwhelmed by the goodness of others. What a restful place to take a day off.

A map of touring cyclists

The rather decked-out bike of our fellow lodger (we wouldn't want to carry that much stuff!)

Feeling rejuvenated after our rest day, we got up at 6 the next morning and headed to Clay, where we stopped for breakfast of leftovers from the church meal. At a little cafe in town, we ran into Marcus, a cyclist racing in the Trans Am cross country race! We chatted with him for a while, and were delighted to find out that he was more than willing to talk. And, more importantly, that he was indeed having fun (despite being obviously worn out)! The other racers we had met had not made the best impression, but Marcus restored our faith in racers and somehow convinced us that the crazy cross country race wasn't completely insane, after all.

We met an east-bound cyclist just a little bit down the road and chatted with him for quite a while. And we spotted three more while we were riding! So many cyclists, so little time!

The day was getting absurdly hot absurdly fast, and we were anxious to get across the Ohio River to our planned siesta in Cave-in-Rock Park as soon as possible. We had enough time to swing by a little Amish store on our way there, though. It sold discounted damaged/expired goods and had the best prices we've ever seen. If only we had had more room on our bikes! We bought what we needed for lunch (a strange compilation of canned salmon, mustard, olives, and artichoke hearts) and hit the (very hot) road. Unfortunately, we arrived at the ferry just as it was pulling away. But we ended up chatting with a family while we waited, which was lovely.

Ferry across the Ohio (hello Illinois!)

After eating in the park, we napped for a couple of hours to beat the heat before we explored the cave. While we were sitting/laying there, a family walked up and offered us a place to stay around Springfield, Missouri. We'll definitely be taking them up on it. People are wonderful!

Canned salmon salad :)

The cave itself was pretty cool (in every sense). Muddy and dark. Apparently, it used to be a hideout for pirates and other baddies back in the day.

View into the cave

10 more miles brought us to E'town, where we scavenged for dinner and pitched our tent. We went to bed early (read "sprawled on top of our sweaty sleeping bags, wishing for a cold pool of water") so we could get to Carbondale early the next day.

We made a quick getaway in the morning, waking at 5am and riding 20 miles before breakfast. In Eddyville, the locala confirmed that we were, indeed, now in the Midwest. The terrain was changing, getting hillier again, with short but steep ascents that had us standing up just to get over them. Thankfully, we got most of our miles in before it got too hot. Even with a pickle break, we made it to Carbondale with plenty of time to spare.

Thank goodness canned greens still exist in Illinois

Just inside the town, we discovered the most wonderful magical mystical children's park on the planet. It had a castle and dragons and wizards fighting each other and all sorts of mysterious creatures. It was awesome. We would both still play there.

Sonja and her pet dragon

A fortress! With goblins and turrets and awesomeness

Marvelous paintings inside the castle

Our real destination was the post office in Carbondale. Unfortunately, we discovered once there that all of our packages had been sent to the main post office for processing. We weren't loving the idea of a three mile ride on a busy road, but we didn't have much of an option. Thankfuly we found the local co-op on our way over, which made us feel much better about the world.

When we finally made it to the post office, the horizon was black with an approaching storm. Apparently the storms are different here, because we have never seen a sky that looked so truly, purely evil. Because the trees were low, you could see for miles. And all of it was swirling, twirling, capable-of-producing-a-tornado darkness, with massive bolts of lighting to break it up. Thankfully, we made it to the post office right before the storm hit! When it did, the rain came down in driving sheet. We weren't sure how we were going to ride the few miles to our Warmshowers host's house, but then a woman we met in line offered to drive us. So we loaded all of our gear into her little Suburu, even though it meant that she and her car got soaking wet. We arrived safely at our Brady's house thanks to her help. We love our post office angel!

Once we got dried off and cleaned up, Brady made us a delicious stirfry for dinner. While we ate, we chatted about the wildlife conservation research he was doing for his master's degree, among other things. We also learned that he has had over 50 Warmshowers guests! We were very impressed, and very happy to get to hang out with him for a night.

Tomorrow, its more adventuring in Illinois! Stay tuned.