Day 8 : Enter Illinois, Ride Nice Roads, Clean Pigeon Poop

We rose around 7:00, cooked bear mush (hot wheat cereal), were then treated by our distinguished host, Mr. Bill Mueller, to a round of English muffin breakfast sandwiches and a half gallon of Welch's grape juice. Bill, being the cycling enthusiast that he is, escorted us across from his house to the Indiana-Illinois border, which was about 3-4 miles from his home. As soon as we crossed into Illinois the roads became noticeably nicer, almost as if the IDOT anticipated the trio's arrival and laid down some fresh black top.

(below: Lukester keeping the bird afloat on the beautiful Illinois roads)


Our first stop in Illinois was Paris, a quaint town with a population somewhat around 10,000. Just on the southeastern fringes of Paris we spotted a Wal Mart. For the past 7 days I had been contemplating purchasing a new digital camera, one that was small enough to fit in the back pocket of my jersey and would allow us to take pictures from the moving cycles. Under normal circumstances all members of the trio avoid Wal Mart stores, but considering the fact that you really cannot buy electronics locally and the urgency of this purchase, we decided to enter into the juggernaut. From this point on, most of the pictures you see will be taken from the new Nikon Coolpix L16. The nicest thing about Wal Mart is obviously their return policy. I could essentially use this camera for 29 days and then decide that I don't like it. I would then just need to take the receipt and the camera back for a full refund. Damn you Wal Mart. Your quality selection, low prices, flexible return policy, and cold air conditioning is turning the trio into Wal Mart shoppers. (note: please don't despair; the trio is far from Wal Mart shoppers. The only products purchased at Wal Mart this trip were rechargeable batteries, a camera, and a paint pen. While buying these items, lunch was on Mr. Walton :})


(below: Sam buying his first digital camera)

(below: Sam photographed Nick and Luke as they are so intoxicated with Wal Mart they can hardly see straight)

After our venture into Wal Mart we headed into the peculiar town called Paris, Illinois. We spent most of our afternoon hanging out in Paris, mainly in their beautiful public library (pictured below: Paris library is a Carnegie building). You must remember the last heap of blog posts posted some 6 days ago, the ones that you so ravenously devoured, they were posted from the Paris Public Library.





We probably spent some 3 hours or more blogging, stretching, and chatting with the Parisians. It is for the latter that we were so thoroughly entertained. There were two young unnamed Parisian hooligans (below) who were very interested in our trip; Luke and I must have chatted with them for an hour. They not only asked us questions but filled us in with information about Paris from the perspective of one high school dropout with two kids from two different mothers and his younger friend (still attending highschool) who dates the former kid's sister. They told us who the town whore is, what kids do for fun (according to their account, mostly drugs, namely Meth and Marijuana), and they expounded on their dreams and aspirations, definitely the most touching part of the interaction.




While I was inside blogging , a foreman who was working on the road construction outside of the library named Tim Roark approached Luke. He was a cyclist who had done some touring earlier in his life. They chatted for a long time about the physical, psycho/spiritual aspects of cycling. Apparently he was so excited about what we were doing that he went home and grabbed a bunch of cycling gear, like rain pants, jerseys, and shorts, and he returned to donate them to the trio. Luke has been wearing the jersey and shorts; thanks Tim!



The Parisians were nice and inquirious souls, who left us feeling quite Bloomington. We eventually left Paris and continued on our way through Illinois. We came upon a town called Oakland, with a population somewhere below 500. It had a nice town square where stopped to snack and stretch. As we were stretching a few cars passed, a good looking woman (probably mid-30's) biked past and gave us quite the nod. Soon enough, we noticed that the same four cars were continuously circling the square (or I guess more appropriately termed squaring the square... but that just sounds goofy). At first we were wondering if trouble was brewing, maybe some burly football players or some super machismo terds wanted to mess with us. We were somewhat relieved to find out that it was in fact a swarm of high school or maybe young college aged girls. Everywhere we go we draw a lot of attention, especially from the lady folk. After swarming for a good 10 minutes, one of the girls, named Brandi, stopped her car (green Mitsubishi Eclipse) and approached us inquiring, " ya'll need some help stretching....hehe?" I was quick to reply, "sure thing, grab this leg and lift slowly until I say stop." (below: Nick and Luke being assisted by Brandi).



After our thorough stretch with Brandi and company, we hit the road for a few more hours of daylight. As the sun began to hide, we scoured the town of Arcola for a place to crash. We decided to forgo our typical stop in the town bar and find some drunks to take us home. We continued on past Arcola until we saw a sweet barn. Nick had been mentioning his desire to sleep in a barn. I decided to stop and ask the apparent owners of the barn if we could camp in their lawn. (below: barn, erected in 1908)





The wife, Mrs. Shelley Thomas, was hesitant at first. She need to go first ask her husband Mark if it was ok. After some deliberation they decided that it would be ok if we camped at their house. After granting us permission, I pressed further, "Is that your barn? ......Do you mind if we sleep their?" They explained that the barn was in complete disrepair, messy, and the loft was covered in pigeon poop. Shelley then said, " Well Mark, cleaning the barn was on your "to-do" list for this summer, how about cleaning it out now?" I then quickly interrupted and explained how the trio could reciprocate their presumed hospitality, "we could sweep out the pigeon poop." That is exactly what we did. After the cleaning we fixed an asian noodle and vegetable dinner, showed off the map, chatted with them and their daughter Mackenzie, and then hit the hay.

(below: Sam working hard for a barn roof over his head)


(below: Sam and Nick explain the route to Mr. Mark Thomas)




(below: the next morning, Luke and Nick still sleeping as the light enters through the cracks of the barn)




The Thomas Family: you rock. Thanks Mackenzie, Shelley, and Mark

miles traveresed : 54

morale: pseudo bloomington

weather: clear not much wind

no flats