July 19th, 2006
Chelsea and I got up and got dressed and got completely ready to go – we took the bikes down ourselves for the first time, had eaten, had our sunscreen on, and were ready to rock and roll. It was taking us a long time to get going, and we finally realized we were absolutely exhausted – the heat was still intense – we had gone to bed at 89 degrees in the tent again, and we had been riding for 7 straight days. We decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and we had Alex drive the route till the next campground. It was great fun seeing the route, and it was great fun seeing the Illinois countryside. What a change from what we had been seeing! Suddenly it was all farming – and we’re talking big operations too.
We stopped in Karnak, IL to eat breakfast at the Dover Café, where once again we were treated to great service, great food, and great prices. The owner saw our Florida license plate and came out to talk us – what a character she was! Turns out that she and her husband ran the marina (don’t quote me on the specifics of this) at Okeechobee in Florida for a number of years, and her husband still goes over there for the winter. She was full of wonderful stories and colloquialisms, so that it was a like having entertainment with our food.
The heat was absolutely stifling – we later found out that the heat index was 111 degrees. This will have been over two weeks of 105-111 degree heat, with very high humidity. We began to feel like it would never end!
Our choices in campgrounds were pretty limited, but we stopped at the first one we saw, just short of Cape Girardeau, still in IL. The campground was merely several sites in front a private residence, but we spoke to Sarah, the wife half of the husband/wife (Sarah and Riley) owners, who gave us the prices and amenities. They had a small “clubhouse” where there was a full kitchen – sink, microwave, stove, oven, two full bathrooms with showers, and blessedly, air conditioning. We asked about a place in Cape Girardeau that would have Internet access, something like a coffee house, and she gave us directions.
The coffee house – The Grace Café – was an unbelievable blessing – it was a real honest to heaven coffee house, with all kinds of choices of coffees, organic foods, incredible sandwiches, smoothies, organic clothing – we hadn’t seen anything even remotely like it since Micanopy FL. We had strong Internet signal there, so we spent at least 6 hours there, nursing our coffees and sandwiches, while we checked email, took care of critical business, and even had a very quick look at world news. We sat in comfortable couches and chairs, in air conditioning the whole while! It was like having died and been reborn. 🙂
We made our way back to the Rest In Peace campsite, and set up our tent, and it was great fun having a real kitchen and real bathrooms. I had a short talk with Sarah again, and we got to talking about Whole Foods and organic foods, etc. She told us there was a Whole Foods in St Louis, and we had already promised Alex that we would take a day to go see St Louis, so that seemed perfect – to get stocked up on our supplies that are harder to get.