May 28th, 2019 / (118km/74mi, 1100hm)
This morning I sleep long – I cancel the alarm several times and get up only by 7:30am finally, feeling the urge to head for breakfast. Today I want to stay in Carbondale and get a few things done. Tomorrow I continue to Elizabethtown where things start to get very urban for the next days.
As I arrive at breakfast around 8am and check the weather report, the news hits me that there’s rain and thunderstorm forecasted for tomorrow! That’s new – and very unfortunate, as I don’t want to spend two days here in Carbondale. So I finish my breakfast quickly and start packing up my stuff to get out of the motel and onto the road. That’s how plans change.
After a “short” stop at Walmart across the street, I finally get onto the street by 10am. Somehow time flies, especially when you’re short of it. It’s already hot and muggy again. According to the weather report, this is going to stick around for the next 14 days at least. Not my kind of weather.
The ride today is very nice. I strictly follow the official bike trail as Google again wants to send me all sorts of detours or along major highways and I don’t intend to do that. The bike trail gets me into some nice shady forests and otherwise out into the hills covered with fields and trees and some occasional farm in between. Traffic is extremely light and the only downside of the trail is that it doesn’t avoid steep climbs: it’s the worst rollercoaster I’ve ridden so far: Super fun to rush down the hill, but very steep angles going up.
The scenery stays the same more or less for the whole day.
I arrive in Elizabethtown, IL, located at the side of the Ohio River, at around 5pm. It’s a tiny town that falls apart in every corner. It hosts the oldest hotel of Illinois, The Rose Inn Bed & Breakfast, that didn’t have any rooms in the hotel available any more – which was a pity as the pictures looked quite cute – but I get a cabin a few meters down the road which is way too big for me, but why would I complain? So I move into “The Shady Rest Lodge” for tonight.
There’s no wifi and no cellular reception in the cabin. That’s a clear minus. I hope I don’t get stuck here for a rainy day and then have no internet access. Sigh. 🙂 And even outside cellular coverage is extremely sparse and spotty. Don’t try updating or uploading anything big… Hence, no pictures today: will be delivered in the coming days when I have wifi in some motel again.
I have dinner in a “restaurant” on a house boat on the Ohio River. When the food I ordered finally arrives – it took forever – I already feel sea-sick from the wobbly shaking of the boat. The food is very very basic: catch of the day (some white fish) stir-fried with beans and coleslaw out of a can apparently. Yummy ;-). But I’m hungry and it could be worse. The alternative was Pizza from the gas station. Nope!
I finish the evening on my cabin’s veranda, fighting off Mosquitos until I get tired of it and they declare victory over that battle. Time to go to bed and sleep. I’ll get up early tomorrow morning and check the weather report (yes, I do learn sometimes from mistakes). Then decide whether I stay or leave for my next stop. Good night!