Day 95 ~ New Wheels

New Wheels built by Mark Johnson at Precision Tandems! Thanks Mark!

Date: October 22, 2009

From: Elizabethtown, Illinois

To: Elizabethtown, Illinois (Drive to Rosiclare and Cave In Rock)

Route:

Miles Today: 0 miles

TOTAL MILES: 2, 616 miles

Top Speed on this trip: 54.1 mph

Weather: 60s but rainy

License Plates Collected: 5 Montana, 8 Wyoming (2 motorcycle) and 1 Idaho (found in WY), 2 Colorado, 1 Kansas (gifted from David of Baldwin City), 1 Missouri (To be sent to Grammy’s by our new buddy, Kansas City firefighter Shawn), 1 Illinois

Flats: 8

Broken Spokes: 3

Cracked Rim: 1

Today we got our wheels back. Hooray! Gregory likes the new black rims better than the old silver ones and I think Mike would concur. I think this is one time color doesn't make a big impression on me. I'm just glad we will be safe from having a blow out. The bike is back together now and we should be ready to go in the morning. Of course the weather decided to turn rainy again today. The forecast doesn't look too bad for the next 4 days though. The lows will be between 40 and 50 and it will be mostly cloudy. Hopefully the precipitation will be mild.

This morning we opted to go up the street to Ms. Lizzie's Restaurant for breakfast. We took Bruce along with us after we chatted with all of his guests who were very interested in our trip. (He had a full breakfast table, of 6 people, for his 8:00 breakfast so we waited until 9:00 to make an appearance.) They were a really nice group of folks and all wanted our blog information and wanted to have our picture so we posed on the porch and lobby and gave them our email so they could send us the pictures.

Once breakfast was cooked and served at Ms. Lizzie's, our cook, Jim, came out from the kitchen to chat. He said, "You're the bicyclists right?" "Word spreads fast around here doesn't it?" we replied. As we told Jim about where we were from we came to find out that Jim went to Chico State in the 60s, the same college that Mike and I graduated from in 1988. He even remembered his address on Hazel Street in the Fraternity house across from the post office. It sounded like Jim did more partying than studying but he did say he got a business degree and two doctorates. (At least I think that is what he said...)

Back at the house I continued to help clean up the cottage since Bruce had guests coming in this evening and we moved our gear back downstairs to "the dungeon" which I previously mentioned as the quarters for family visitors. Mike and Gregory were off for their $5.oo haircuts with Barber Jim around 11:45 and I stuck around to help Bruce get the rooms ready.

The boys were back in no time and though Gregory didn't want to get his haircut he seems really happy with his new short hairdo. Gregory told me that the barber used an old fashioned straight blade to shave Mike's neck and also commented that he had an interesting dispenser for his "hair gel."

After our trip to Marion, Illinois to pick up the tires we stopped at Wal-mart to get some take and bake pizza and apple pie and vanilla ice cream to share with Bruce this evening. We were glad we got two pizzas because as we were sitting down to eat, around 6:45P.M. in the front door walked a drenched and tired cyclist. Brian had ridden over 80 miles today from Carbondale, Illinois and is also headed East. I gave him a hearty welcome (he was probably thinking... Who is this woman?) and introduced Gregory and I as cyclists and then I introduced Bruce as his host. I told him it was his lucky night because this is a great place to stay and we happen to have a feast that you are welcome to join. Bruce got him settled, he brought in his panniers and then Gregory showed him around the alley and back to the garage where he of course showed off "his bike." We had a great time visiting with Brian and hearing his stories of the road. I'm sure he will ride beyond our destination tomorrow but for tonight we have a fellow cyclist to compare and share experiences with. We also learned there is another fellow probably a day behind him...

I also failed to mention that on our way to pick up the wheels we were invited to stop by The Hardin County Independent (the local paper) for an interview with Julie. Julie called Bruce this afternoon after she had a couple of folks call her and tell her she needed to interview us. She said one call came last night around 9:15P.M. and was Faye Donovan (wife of Wesley Donovan whom Gregory and I met at the forest service office). We think the other call this morning was from a lady we met in Rosiclare yesterday. At any rate she got her interview and we are supposed to stop by tomorrow for a picture with us on the bike. This makes our second interview of the trip.