Springfield, Illinois to Litchfield, Illinois

When it comes to cycling, there’s nothing better than flat asphalt, light traffic, and a 25 miles per hour wind at your back on a bright sunny day.

And that pretty much sums up my day today.

I remember a quote from an old TV series, “The A Team”. “I love it when a plan comes together.” And my plan to take a day off yesterday and wait for the winds to shift worked out perfectly. Almost too perfectly, in fact. Because even though today was my highest mileage day yet, with the winds pushing me along I still got in two hours before check-in time at the Quality Inn in Litchfield. Fortunately, the receptionist checked me in anyway and didn’t charge me extra. So that meant a shower, a short nap, and time to work on my blog before dinner.

Aside from making great time, two other things of note happened today. Both in Farmersville, Illinois.

First, when I left Springfield this morning, I was looking forward to riding through Farmersville. You see, I have some memories of that place. Or more precisely, of a greasy spoon diner that Dad and I stopped at for lunch when he was driving me down to Cahokia for a pre-admission’s visit to Parks College. As I recall, I was still in my senior year of high school, so that stop for lunch was well over 50 years ago. I don’t recall anything particular interesting happened in that diner; just me and Dad sitting at the counter, each eating a greasy burger and drinking ice-cold Coke out of a chilled glass. I have no idea why that stuck in my memory all these years, it just did.

Anyway, I wanted to see if that old, dilapidated diner was still there. Maybe stop in for a greasy burger and Coke. For old times’ sake. But, as you’d expect, the diner was gone. Replaced by a mini mall of sorts with a gas station, pizza joint, and Subway sandwich shop. That’s progress, I guess.

And as I was straddling my bike, staring at the spot where the diner used to be, and deciding whether to stop in and get a Subway sandwich for mid-morning lunch, I met four other touring bicyclists making their way north on the US 66 bike route. Of course, as they were going in the opposite direction to me, I could easily see that the extremely helpful wind at my back was a huge hindrance for them. But it all evens out. Sometimes you’re fighting the wind. Sometimes it’s a blessing.

Anyway, we stopped on the side of the road and chatted a bit. Ron and Vic were riding together. They started at Santa Monica Pier in LA (the western terminus of Route 66) just over a month ago. Ed and John also were riding together, but had started in Eureka, Missouri. All four were experienced long-distance bike tourers, each having made several more and longer rides than me. Ron mentioned their planned ride today was 55 miles – into the gale blowing into their face! Amazing! I know I still haven’t got my legs under me yet, nor have I reached the point where my butt is able to endure more than 5 hours in the saddle, but I’m not a complete slouch either. So when I meet other cyclists like Ron, Vic, Ed, and John, I shake my head in admiration. They take riding to entirely different level. Anyway, they were all great people and, if they were heading in my direction, it would have been fun to share their company for a time or two. Which might still be in the future in the case of John, at least. He lives in Oklahoma City and asked me to look him up when I ride through.

Anyway, they’ll ride their journey and I’ll ride mine. And tomorrow mine takes me through Edwardsville to Granite City on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. I’ll spend the night at the KOA campground there, then cross the Chain of Rocks Bridge into Missouri early Friday morning.