Day 31: 5th Century, Abraham Lincoln's Boyhood Home

Gil's Cliff Notes (sent Mon. 8:50 pm):
Long day. 108 miles. Stopped at every SAG stop and every country store (with Dale). [see picture of Dale below -Jean] Off from hotel at 7:08 am. Gentle headwind. Crisp temperature. Fairly major hills first 30 miles then flattened out - especially after crossing Illinois River at mile 49. Had a good time but due to headwind and cross wind it was slower than would have liked given its distance. Felt pretty beat up at 57 miles where we stopped at a small country store at noon. Shoulder hurt. Ate a breakfast burrito and some ice cream and a huge coke and took 2 Advil. When left store felt much better. Down the road we went. Mostly small country roads with little traffic. Country very beautiful. Great expansive blue sky and green fields. Lots of corn. Good looking corn. What a country! By 3:00 pm and 85 miles into it had seen enough of pretty countryside. Arrived Springfield hotel 5:18 pm. Showered and off to Maverick Steakhouse where group had supper. I had a massive amount of food. Really outdid myself. Steak, Chicken, 2 salad bars, ice cream, baked potato - you get the picture.

Well, Gil sent a pretty comprehensive cliff note for today's ride. I'll see if I can add anything from our conversation which wasn't already covered in his paragraph above. He mentioned that several of the hills in the morning were 1/2 to 1 mile in length......that's a lot of uphill pedaling. Gil and Dale rode together all day and took videos. Beautiful country, could see from horizon to horizon, just like further west, but the fields and countryside were all green, with beautiful cornfields. They passed through small towns about every 10 miles. The towns are closer together than those further west, and that helps the riders. They rode through Jacksonville, IL (pop: 10,000) and stopped at the Dairy Queen. Apparently someone from the town newspaper saw a group of cyclists and sent a photographer to check out what was going on. Dale and Gil's pictures were taken and a short article was in the Jacksonville Journal-Courier newspaper this evening. [NOTE: Jean will post the article in a new post below this summary.] A lady who was in the Dairy Queen overheard them and when they left, she asked to take their picture. (Turn-abouts fair play......the tour photographers are being photographed themselves.)

Gil said his knees and shoulders are fairly sore after today's ride, but Dale did great. Tomorrow's ride will be 87 miles to Champaign, IL and their fourth rest day. Here's hoping that the terrain will be flatter. Gil plans to spend the rest day visiting Dale and Linda Arbour's home in Bloomington. There are 15 riding days left on the tour. The countryside is so nice, as are the people they have met. The people along the route are interested in the tour and seem to enjoy talking to the cyclists.