I ate my last banana and granola bar this morning before riding about 15 miles to Jacksonville, IL for breakfast. Jacksonville is a town of about 19,000, which is quite large compared to most of the other towns I have been through.
I found this familiar store there and stocked up on some bananas and other food. Not sure how a "breakfast biscuit" tastes with peanut butter in it, but I'm sure I will find out.
We may not have made it to the gateway arch in St. Louis, but there was no way we were going to miss the main Street gateway arch to the town square in Jacksonville (pic below).
Jacksonville is home to MacMurray College and below is a pic of a chapel on campus.
Below are some pics of the Jacksonville town square.
I crossed the Illinois River at Meredosia, IL. I could tell the river was high and there was flooding on both sides of the river.
I rode through the town of Mt. Sterling, which is home of Dot Foods. I had a burger and fries at Tastee Treet, followed by a big cone of ice cream. The worker there told me about Dot Foods and the family that owns it, the Tracy's, who are residents of the town. She stated the family is very generous and has put a lot into the town. She stated the company is named after the founder's wife, Dorothy.
I made it to Camp Point and stopped at a local church to see if I could pitch my tent at the church for the night. The parsonage is located right next to the church and I spoke to the pastor's wife, Sandy. Her husband was unavailable, so she contacted her neighbor to see if I could camp on their farm.
The neighbors agreed to let me do so, and I got to meet a very neat family. Below is a pic of Brent, his wife, Jenni, and their 2 sons, Tim and Tony. They allowed me to take a shower, which was much needed as I had not showered since Metropolis. They even offered to let me stay inside their home. We sat around their kitchen table and talked for quite a while.
Below are some pic's of Brent's farming equipment. As you can probably tell from the size of the equipment, Brent farms several hundred acres.
I got to camp with the "big boys." Before anyone asks me, I will just let you know, I did not drive any of them. :)
Total miles today: 76.3
Wow! That was so nice of that family! I asked Lisa this morning how often you get to take a shower, so I guess that was a good question. They are awfully nice people to let you take a shower in their house, as I would be leery of letting a stranger shower in my house. It looks like such a great adventure. This morning I asked Jack if he wanted to drive to Banff this summer, and he wasn't too excited about that idea. I also told him we would have to camp if we went, because there aren't many hotels up there. He got even less excited then. Too bad!
ReplyDeleteKeep at him. Maybe we'll run across each other there.
DeleteAny biscuit MUST be better with peanut butter. Also, I never travel across a continent without a never ending supply of Fig Newtons. Just sayin' Anthony.
ReplyDeleteI would have totally been on those nice people's couch..... then doing a chore before I left.
I see enough tractors in my everyday life. NOT sleeping with one.