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The TransAmerica Trail – Illinois
Sebree, KY – Golconda, IL
85 miles
June 22, 2006
Had a good breakfast of cheerios, cookies, and orange juice – courtesy of the church. What a great stay – better than a motel, and free! Rolled out around 7:30, and the first town I came to was Dixon. With a population of 632, there wasn’t really much there, so I moved on to the next town – Clay – population 1,200. Knowing that I had a 22 mile stretch without even a gas station ahead, I stopped for breakfast at a small place called Jeri’s Cafe, and had a great ham and cheese omelette with biscuits. I asked the waitress to fill up my water bottles with ice water, anticipating another hot day.
The following miles were easier than I expected. A funny thing happened with the weather. A flat dark cloud covered the sky, and the temperature dropped 10-15 degrees. By the time I got to Marion, the next town, the cloud had moved on, and the temperature was back in the mid to upper 90s.
With a population of 3,200, Marion was an even bigger town yet, and I arrived right around noon for a lunch break. They had a McDonald’s, so I stopped in for my typical double cheeseburgers, and I stopped at the library… so you can read about how I stopped at the library!
From there it was ten miles to the ferry across the Ohio River, and into Illinois! Pure adventure. Well it doesn’t quite top the man with a canoe who rows hikers across a river in the middle of the Maine woods, but a ferry feels adventurous nonetheless. The first town in Illinois is called Cave in Rock, because there’s apparently a large cave nearby that hosted a band of river pirates for decades. And now in Illinois I see signs for the Trail of Tears “Auto Tour.” It looks as though I’m following the route same that 14,000 Cherokees took on their forced march to a reservation in Oklahoma.
Down the road I came to Elizabethtown, still along the Ohio River. A thunderstorm rolled in, but it was no surprise to me – I had checked the forecast back in Marion, and expected storms all night. I watched it pour from a porch in front of a general store.
The only place to stay in town was a bed and breakfast, so I chose to be bold and venture out into the dwindling rain, seeking cheaper accommodation farther down the line. The rain ceased altogether, but not before I was soaked, with the assistance of puddles and the wet road. My feet squished on each pedal stroke. I knew another storm could come at any time, and it was a shaded, misty evening – the sun only occasionally breaking through the dark sky. I saw a ton of deer near the Shawnee National Forest – no surprise, closing in on dusk.
It was along this stretch that I met two eastbound riders – Peter and Amy Ward. They’re riding from Oregon to Virginia, and were fun to converse with – we were talking for probably at least half an hour. We covered all the bases – from what to expect up ahead, good places to stay, keeping an online journal, attitude, the recent heat, and more.
The remaining miles were a breeze, and I found a cheap motel in Golconda, just as a strong storm started to blow. Life is good.
my dashboard
The Ohio River Ferry
Illinois state line
in Elizabethtown
Peter and Amy Ward
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