Sunday 7/15/18

Murphyboro to Eddyville

^{Rained some more during the night but we stayed dry under the shelter. About sunrise a couple young locals came thru the park providing an alarm clock feature. I thought they may not had gone to bed yet and were under the influence of the evening before. Since it was daylight, and sleeping in public places does not permit sleeping in, it was time to get up and pack up. Before leaving I did do some bike maintenance. Cleaned and oiled the chain , and checked the front rack bolts for tightness. Moving the smaller panniers to the front,  the bike felt nervous with a bit of shimmy on fast downhills. I thought bolts might be working loose and the rack causing the issue. Found nothing loose so could be weight distribution.}

^{This morning we tried out the Huck’s convenience store for breakfast. Something different to break up the routine. Was laid out a bit different but had all the things we needed plus some fresh fruit available. Out of bananas I got one to add to my oatmeal.}

^{My RideWithGPS had not been working correctly the day before. Kept pinging nearly constantly saying I was off course and then on course. Nishanth looked at it but thought we might need to download the route map later at McDonald's in Carbondale. We would have WiFi there and be faster.}

^{Navigating in the Eastern states would be more challenging with so many more roads. To keep us on quieter routes , Adventure Cycling uses many county maintained roads and you constantly need to pay attention.}

^{We finished eating and headed off for Carbondale just 12 miles away. It was a back roads route and several different roads strung together to get us there. Pavement was not  quite as smooth but more than made up in little traffic. But the time we reached Carbondale, the RideWithGPS app was working much better. At the McDonald's we met a pair of cycling tourist from Malaysia. They were both college students studying in the US. They wanted to see the country by bicycle before finishing their studies and returning home. Sounded like they were having a positive experience so far.}

^{The bridge at Chester was being worked on. The single lane of traffic helped me get across safely. Chester is a quaint looking little town perched above the Mississippi River. The creator of the Popey cartoon was born here. Eating a quick lunch of Hunt brothers pizza we kept going.  I use the term lunch loosely as the second meal of the day and not based on time.}

^{As the late afternoon and evening passed,  it was obvious we would be challenged to reach Elizabethtown before dark. Plus it was rumbling and heavy clouds moving in. We were at Eddyville and a local said their community center had a nice pavilion building. We decided to stay and I went to check it out. I was not there long and Donnie Wise showed up to help the TransAm cyclist. When he mentioned having a door unlocked for us to use a restroom at night, I asked would he mind if we just slept inside on the floor. Simple as Donnie saying OK, we were in. Later when it was pouring rain, I was very glad to have a roof over our heads.}

^{About 70 oppressively humid miles.}