Carbondale, IL

Michael has called to check in for the past two days. These past days the crew has ridden into and almost through Illinois and Michael's odometer clicked over the 1000 mile mark. He's currently at 1025 miles!


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Friday the 13th the crew had a very bad day for cycling. They started from Marion, KY but it was a rainy day. They were all packed and ready to go pretty early on but it was raining in the morning. They had to cross the Ohio river and past there into Illinois the road got pretty bad. Michael rode through ahead of the group through Elizabethtown but soon after some storms came up and he waited them out in an empty carport along the road. He waited about an hour and then suited up for rain and rode on a few more miles. At that point Claire called to say the rest of the crew was stuck due to storms in Elizabethtown and they weren't going on. All in all Michael did 35 miles.

She went to pick Michael up and brought him back there. They stayed in a church there and met two other cyclists from Boulder who were riding XC starting in San Francisco. They talked about routes through Colorado, Kansas, and Kentucky. Then Michael said that because his quads had been (and I quote) "screaming at me a lot" he made sure to eat a lot of food and stretch for a long time. He also started reading Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver. It is a good book that I would highly recommend and that I think was recommended to him. He got to sleep around 11, but he said it wasn't very good sleep because he was sleeping right above an air conditioner, cars kept rolling by, and dogs were barky all night.

He woke up at 4:45 and woke the rest of the crew. They were planning to get on the road by 6AM. Because Michael was ahead he decided to drive the car on up to where he'd last stopped. He also said the roads were bad in that section, so he didn't really feel like re-riding it. I guess the roads used to be gravel and then to "pave" the road they just tarred over the tar so it is very bumpy, sticky, and annoying. When Trevor caught up he took a turn driving the car (I wonder how big this car is...) and then Claire and Nathan took turns driving later on.

Mike said the day was a nice one of hills, minus the road quality. He did about 90 miles in total and arrived in Carbondale. When we talked they were waiting for Claire to pick up Trevor and Nathan who had broken down on the road. One had a broken spoke in his wheel and the other had a CO2 inflation capsule blow up as he tried to fix a flat and I guess neither had a hand pump. Then they were going to go out to dinner. Michael said he thought Carbondale was pretty nice, so it is a good stopping place.

Tomorrow they will be taking a much needed rest day. Because Michael's legs are screaming (After 1000 miles I would scream too!) and everyone else is tired too. Tonight they are staying with someone they found on couch surfer and the people happen to work with solar panels. Tomorrow they are getting some local publicity for the trip. I don't know if there will be sound, video, an article or what, but as I know I will post it here (if it is available via interweb). They will be having a potluck for them and I think Michael is also hoping to email a bunch more pictures and get some access to internet.