Day 22 Carbondale, Illinois - Cave-in-Rock, Illinois

Day 22 Carbondale, Illinois – Cave-in-Rock State Park, Illinois

Miles – 84

1 deer, 2 turtles, and hawk we enjoyed by the cyclists

This morning, Glenn and I ate breakfast at the hotel.  I made a waffle.  Instead of the shape of Texas, the waffle was round with a heart shaped middle.  I enjoyed breakfast with Caroline and Kristine. Glenn was busy with packing the coolers and the luggage for the day.  I helped with loading some ice buckets into the coolers from the machine. Glenn got a luggage cart to help with the luggage.  And as usual, we had the “spare” bike in our room.  

About 10 minutes before we left, I asked Ben C. if he would take me to the Wal-mart across the street and I would get supplies for a picnic lunch.  On the route that I investigated several months before, I just remember there were few and far between towns.  Vela gave me her credit card and I got bread, cheese, ham, and chicken slices.  Caroline asked for a bag of mints.  And that was it.  

I got back from Wal-Mart just in time before the morning “devotions”.  Neil reads from his hand-held, the “psalmist, prayer of ascent”.  Then we have a quick word of prayer.  Then the bikers are off.  Usually, Jon is flying the drone and it follows the bikers out.  And we are NOT right behind them, because Glenn has to close up the lid on the front of the van and make sure everything is tied down on the back too.

We were finally able to download the 5.99 version of the RidewithGPS program where I can see the turn by turn movement of the 3 cyclists.  And normally we catch up to the riders within 10 minutes from when they depart.

It was pretty roaming farmland and homes that we road through today.  Everything is so very green, flowers along the fences and hanging baskets on the porches.  One thing I have noticed how everything seems manicured and yards are freshly mowed! There were several long hills the straight roads they biked on today.  As they were riding up the top of this one steep hill, they stumbled upon guys were hiking.  Neil struck up conversations to find out more about them.  The older one uses to ride bikes, like he has done the Appalachian Trail, biked across the US, done stuff probably up in Canada.  Then he said, he stopped biking and was just hiking.  The two fellows carried 1 medium size back-pack and a cane, along with wearing a hat.  The younger one was only 17, so without his parent's consent, he will not be in the documentary.  He expressed that he doesn’t know where he’ll go after he dies.  Like who can you believe if you can’t see it?  I noticed Neil tried to bring in the emphasis of nature and that someone greater than us had to create this.  We asked the two walkers if they needed anything. Nope.  Not even water.

We continued on our way towards Cave – in – Rock, Illinois.  About 11:30am, they have been bicycling for 4 hours and they were hungry. Not a town in site, and certainly not a restaurant either.  We came across a small grocery store that had a covered area.  One table that had chess pieces on it.  Vela laid out the paper towels, we pulled out the bread, sandwich meat and cheeses.  I got the chips out.  And that was our picnic lunch.

About this time, I was getting sleepy, so as we drove on, I took a quick cat nap.  Our next stop was in Elizabethtown that had a larger convenience store.  Glenn bought me an ice cream sandwich.  And here, Neil had another conversation with a guy that was riding his bike from DC to the West coast.  He was fully loaded.  He must have had 150 pounds of gear.  He was in the military.  I did not listen to the conversation, so I can’t expound on it.  But having been in the military, I’m sure he has seen some ‘crazy’ stuff.

We arrived at Cave-in-Rock State Park around 4pm.  The first time we have gotten to our destination this early.  Everyone, especially the cyclists were starving.  We went up to the main store and restaurant.  Glenn and I shared our chicken dinner and baked potato.  We did have a blackberry pie.  Then we piled into the van to drive down and see the Cave that is in the Rock.  Interesting formation.

This State Park is on the banks of the Ohio River.  I can look out the window and see boats and barges floating up and down this river.  Interesting, there is not a bridge connecting to the Kentucky side, however, there is a ferry that we'll go on tomorrow morning.  Its been a long time since I've been on a ferry.  It should be a great experience.

Well, I don’t think I have internet here right now.  If I do, I’ll post it.  And we will not have the internet at the Lake House and our REST day on Wednesday.  So, it might be several days when I post again. Since it is 7:19pm right now, and I’m calling it a day.  We’ve had good weather today compared to the rain on Sunday.  We’ve had interesting conversations and we didn’t make any wrong turns.  Good night.