June 20th-21st - Carbondale, IL to Chester, IL

Mileage: 50ish miles
Terrain: Flat Lands
Temperature: 85 ish degrees and Humid
On our rest day we got some laundry done at Seth’s parents’ house. They were so hospitable and were cooking for us constantly. They made breakfast and lasagna and lots of other good food! At 11:00 am we got loaded up in the van and went to a very sweet lady’s house named Joan who has MS. We did a yard makeover and cleaned some windows for her. There is it seems like always news media and newspapers etc. doing stories on our group and we did end up in Carbondale’s Newspaper and on the news. We then went to Wal-Mart stocked up on food, I got some fresh fruit which is wonderful when you are out on the road!! Went back to Seth’s house chilled out, cleaned my bike, got a shower and had some adjustments made on Ruby. This morning at about 8:00 am we all went to a café in town that offered us breakfast at half price. Had breakfast and then started riding. We only had about 50 miles today which was fairly easy and we ended up riding along the Mississippi River which was fairly flat. There was LOTS of flooding around this area and in many cases the road was the only thing above ground. The was one time when we even had to ride through a short part of the road that was flooded and was about 6-12 inches deep. My feet were then soaked for the rest of the day!! We got to camp which we are staying at an Eagles Bar out back. We are tenting and they even have a shower in a little room in the basement. Once I took a shower and got out it immediately started pouring rain. However, there was a small shelter and we are now sitting inside, where it is nice and cool!!