The rain was gone and the sun lite the morning as I packed my gear. My stomach growled while I finished and then headed to the park restaurant just up the hill. Buttermilk pancakes with bacon, orange juice and coffee was my choice. No regrets as I finished the stack of three.
The Cave-in-Rock, a cave with a rich history of river pirates that robbed and killed for the cargo of ships traveling the river. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave-In-Rock,_Illinois
Leaving town and back on county roads I headed west to Lake Glendale in the Shawnee National Forest to meet up with Nancy about forty mile away. I am now just across the Ohio River in Illinois with Kentucky on the east side but here the landscape is much different and so are the roads. Here the roads have a shoulder and the hills are much longer with steeper grades. It’s mostly farmland with large equipment working the fields and fewer places for food and water.
It was on one of these long climb that I met Julie who was now traveling east on TransAmerican bike route. She started her tour in California riding Route 66 to Missouri before connecting with this route to Yorktown, VA. We had a pleasant visit and swapped information and stories. When riding alone for days it is a joy to meet up with another person that relates with my adventure.
I arrived at the campground late afternoon tired and hungry, that breakfast was my only meal today. In camp I hung up my sleeping bag and rain gear to dry, I was still wet from rain when I crawled into bed last night. After a shower we enjoyed a real home cooked meal, pork stir fry with rice compliments of Nancy, and then walked one of the trails with the dogs.
