Day 9 : I love the Amish. They love to Bicycle.

The Thomas family (above) treated us to a lovely morning feast consisting of eggs, sausage, biscuits, hashbrowns, and coffee (below). After some morning chatting and packing we departed from Arcola by 8:00. Before leaving we attempted to fill our sagging tires with air from Nick’s hand pump. We were somewhat oblivious to the fact that a bike fully loaded with 70 pounds of weight would be near impossible to pump up with a hand pump. My tires started off at 60 psi, 20 below desired level, and after Nick’s futile attempts I was left with 20 psi. We decided to continue on with low pressure until we found a gas station.

About 5 miles down the road, with winds blaring some 15 mph or greater, we spotted a sign that read Fresh Goats Milk. We stopped off at the Amish house. The 9 children soon emerged from the house with some very enigmatic, but pleasant looks. Eventually their mother came to the drive and gave us a very warm welcome: a tall glass of goats milk each. We then asked to purchase some milk, eggs and cheese. At first she wasn’t going to take our money. When asking her what she wanted she retorted, “what ever you think it is worth.” Luke handed her $10 and she sent her son in to get change. Luke quickly staved off the change retrieval, and she looked shocked. After the business we asked to see the animals. She brought us into the barn and showed us the milking goats, the meat goats, and the chickens. We chatted for a good 15-20 minutes and then departed.

(note: I had some inclination not to just begin shooting pictures of the Amish or their property because of a cultural imposition. So I politely asked if it was ok to take pictures, she said that she would rather we did not. So…. You will notice that we do not have any pictures of the Amish people with whom we met. I may have not been exercising enough cultural sensitivity when later photographing Amish on bikes and buggies as we passed them. However, my goal during this trip is to document place and with that documentation comes the inherent problem of disregarding cultural autonomy. I apologize for imposing my culture upon the Amish, but this was only a means for discovering rich cultural landscape of central Illinois and the greater United States.)


About 10 more miles down the road we came to a town named Arthur. Just on the western outskirts of Arthur we noticed a billboard for a bike shop. We spent a good hour or so trying to find this shop. The shop had just recently moved, and the billboard had yet to be updated. An hour an 8 miles later, after asking several people for directions (below Nick asks a man in the buggy for directions), we found the shop. It was amazing how many Amish ride bikes; the buggy lane was busy with buggies and bikes. Many Amish ride recumbent bikes and they almost all carry trailers.




(below: two Amish kids arriving at the bikeshop with their little pony drawn wagon)




After the bike shop we stopped at a place called Yoder’s Kitchen. There was a supposedly tasty and cheap buffet of Amish-style cooking offered, but we decided to feast upon their baked goods picnic style just outside the restaurant (below: feasting). Buffets sure do draw large numbers of elderly folk. The elderly folk are by far our favorite inquirers. They kept coming up to us and asking us, “ Where ya from? Why are you going to Oregon? Oregon, that is a long way!” (below; the picnic outiside of Yoder's)



(below: two delightful elderly folk outside of Yoder's)



After lunch we set out for Springfield. The reason for aiming to get to Springfield was that we already had a place to stay there. I met this guy name Paul Hosmanek through an online cycling community (www.warmshowers.org), and his parents lived in Springfield and were exalted to house us. We were not sure how far it was to Springfield because everyone we asked told us something different, and none of them were cognizant of the route we were required to traverse, being that we had to stay off of interstates. We accrued that Springfield was somewhere between 50 and 70 miles from Arthur, making our total trip some 70-90 miles for the day. Because of nasty head winds, and sweltering temperatures (the hottest yet, somewhere in the upper 90’s), we did not make it all the way to Springfield. About an hour before sunset we decided that it wasn’t safe to travel any further, seeing that we were completely exhausted from traveling some 68 miles. (below: Luke and Sam looking exhausted, Sam is on the phone with the folks from Springfield explaining that we won't be making it until the following day)





We stopped at a very peculiar residence to ask about camping ; an Organic farm/fireworks store. There we met some of the nicest folks thus far: Sharon and Gary Younker and Gary’s brother David and his wife Angie. We approached the fireworks stand, which they set up in their garage for the two weeks preceding the 4th of July. I jokingly asked them for some sparklers, snakes, and roman candles. Nick then asked if we could camp in their lawn. They didn’t hesitate, quickly showing us our sleeping options. Sharon shut down the stand and began scouring the tub. She insisted that we shower; it had been 4 days since we last bathed. They then fixed us a meal of hot dogs and chilli. We all chatted for a good couple of hours about organic agriculture and genetically modified crops, their kids, and the future. We finished the night around a campfire drinking a beer with David and Angie. That night, while sleeping under the stars we were greeted by a very brave an adventurous skunk. This skunk kept trying to eat our bread and other snacks positioned above Nick and my heads. At one point during the night the skunk brushed up against Nick’s face. Luckily no one was sprayed; Sharon later explained that she only had one can of tomato juice. (below: Gary holding down the fireworks stand)

(below: Although some may argue that Sam was wearing panty hose, these are the resultant tan lines of 9 days in the sun wearing bike shorts)

Sharon, Gary, David, and Angie. Your hospitality was lovely. Thanks so much.

miles traversed: 67

morale: sagging late in the day, but boosted greatly after meeting the Younkersweather. no rain but fierce winds and scorching temperatures. exhausting.