Distance: 43.2 mi, Climbed: 3,143 ft
Completed: 1,363.9 mi, 70,909 ft
Most nights, Joanna and I stay in hotels or Airbnbs that are in the small towns that we pass along the route. Last night was a little different. In order to avoid having to ride a difficult sixty-plus-mile day, we found an Airbnb that was between the small towns along the route. That is, in the middle of nowhere.
We arrived late at our Airbnb yesterday only to find that our code to get in the house did not work. There was no cell service so there was no way for us to reach out to the host to get the correct access code. We were stuck. Luckily, two women jogged by, who were staying in an Airbnb down the road. They let us connect to their WiFi to contact the host and get the access code sorted out. First problem solved.
We will often walk to a local restaurant for dinner. If there are no restaurants easily available, we order something in using Uber Eats. That strategy has served us well. Well, that is until last night. Our Airbnb was too remote. There were no drivers available for any of the delivery services. We were out of luck. We ate energy bars for dinner. Yum!
Breakfast at Airbnbs can also be difficult. Some days we have managed to find a grocery store nearby and picked up food for breakfast before arriving. Some rentals have had breakfast options nearby. Today, our only option was ten miles away, a Dollar General which did not have a fresh produce section nor a deli counter. We bought cold cuts from the refrigerator, got some tortillas, and made ourselves impromptu turkey roll-ups. The real breakfast of champions.
While we were sitting outside eating our breakfast, a pickup truck with a horse trailer pulls up and literally parks in the middle of the parking lot ignoring any notion of a parking space. Two men come out. One goes into the store, and the other makes a beeline right for us. My first thought is do we have a problem?
George walked over to us and started asking about our bicycles and our trip. Turns out he was a very sweet gentleman who loves to bike. He is in his 80’s and now rides an electric bicycle. He told us about the nearby Tunnel Hill trail that we would rider later in the day.
We asked about the horse trailer. George and his buddy Mike were on their way to pick up an older horse that was being donated to the Chakota Therapeutic Riding Center where they volunteer. Our daughter Leora participated in therapeutic riding for many years and still rides during the summer. Mike came out and joined us. He has been on the board of Chakota for twelve years. We shared stories about how wonderful horseback riding is for kids with special needs and how much they enjoy it. Leora still gets so excited whenever she has an opportunity to ride.
We said goodbye to our new friends and headed back off on our ride. We rode on rural roads with rolling hills and a mix of homes, small farms, and grass fields for grazing. Another great morning.
We stopped in Goreville, Illinois, at a pizza place for lunch. The store owner quickly recognized us as bicycle tourists and offered to fill our water bottles and asked if we needed anything else. The TransAmerica hospitality strikes again.
We sat down and waited for our pizza. The couple next to us struck up a conversation asking about the ride. We soon learned that Vicki, 87, and Larry, 90, were both retired teachers. Larry ran one of the first classrooms for kids with special needs in his county in Illinois. We talked about the importance of appropriate education for kids with disabilities. Another nice moment to reflect on some shared experiences with people we just met.
After lunch, we left the rural roads to ride on a shady forested road through Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge and towards a pair of lakes.
Devils Kitchen Lake looks a bit like an ink splotch on satellite images with many ragged edges. But from ground level, we had a great view of a serene lake surrounded by nothing but trees.
The second lake, Little Grassy Lake, was a bit of a disappointment. The lake had mostly dried up, leaving a grassy lake bed for us to imagine where the lake once was. Sigh…
The lakes were just a few miles from our Airbnb in Carbondale. After all the hills of the day, it was good to sit down and rest. Even better, there was a really good BBQ place nearby that delivered. After last night’s energy bars, the brisket really hit the spot.
