Day 19 - Cave In Rock, IL to Carbondale, IL - 90 mi

After experiencing extremely hot temperatures yesterday during our ride, the plan for today was to get up around 4-4:30 am and get on the road to beat the heat (for our 83 mile day). I awoke at 4:20 am with a massive wind storm that woke up our entire group. I did not have my rain tarp on the tent so I was super nervous that the extreme wind meant a huge rain storm was rolling our way. Needless to say I was quick to take down my tent and ready to go! For breakfast I ate a peanut butter sandwich and a package of pop tarts with the plan to eat a large second breakfast in 20-30 miles (approximately 2 hours later).

Our plan to beat the heat worked! We arrived in Carbondale, IL much earlier in the afternoon after completing 90 miles - 3.5 of those miles I spent heading the wrong way with some folks until we turned around :(. Carbondale is kind of like Blacksburg in that we get a rest day here and many people on our team are from Carbondale, including: route leader Joe Ferrell, Geordie Dye, Brian Green, Seth Milam, Colin Schmidt, and Alex Pearlman.

Our Carbondae Party started at Seth Milan's parents house as we arrived to a pool and cold beer (delicious Fat Tire!). After hanging around for a bit, I departed to downtown Carbondale to get my bike worked on and head to dinner at Thai Taste on Main Street. Post dinner, we had a party scheduled at Tres Hombres downtown.

(Caleb King honoring the Carbondale Statue)


The bar party included a free keg of Bud Light provided so the cyclists could enjoy a cold beer. Some of the parents from Carbondale made us fancy T-shirts that say welcome to Carbondale and Bike the US for MS 2010. We all looked like an uber-coordinated group at the bar!



On a side note, I stopped proof reading my blog entries about a week ago so I apologize if the spelling or grammar quality has taken a hit! There are too many things to do in my typical nightly routine to spend the extra 30 seconds proof reading!!