day 15 - thorntown, in to champaign, il - 95 miles.

day 15 - thorntown, in to champaign, il - 95 miles

"bop bop bop beep, bop bop bop beep bopop beep" (imagine as music)

in my head this is the inspring melody that opens the latest jonsi album, go. now for those of you scratching your head as to what i'm talking about, jonsi is a musical genius and makes absolutely beautiful and powerful music. i recommend it. his album, go, popped on my ipod and gave me the energy to jam out my last 35 miles today.

the day before i left on this trip i had the privalege to see jonsi live at terminal 5 in nyc thanks to a lovely lovely friend of mine. a friend who i am looking forward to seeing next month in yellowstone.

anyway, i started early early and rocked out a quick 60 by lunch. the temp was up to 90 so i chowed some wendys and grabbed an ice cold frosty - loved it.

i rode on into the heat of the day, wandering backroads to avoid shoulderpess death traps. ohio and indiana were incredibly easy to get through. just head west and you make it. in illinois, you dead end, hit dirt roads or just loop around right back around to where you started.

i rolled into champaign at 5:30, my fastest day/distance thus far. i headed into the local library, updated, blogged and stunk up the joint. from there i headed out to the D&W lake campground.

i spotted a hometwon buffet, went in and ate for an hour. after 4 plates of food and 3 desserts, i was ready to pop. at about 3am my stomach punished me for the mistreatment.

the guys at d&w couldn't have been friendlier or more accommadating (sp?) we chatted about the ride and such and dennis, the owner, offered up a
morning breakfast that i couldn't have been happier about.

after some chatting on the phone with friends and family i discovered that my next stop didn't exist where my directions said.

i was scheduled to stop at the lake louise campground in byron, il which was supposed to be 60 miles west. turns out that was site 180 miles north. so i decided i'd have to bypass that stop and just turn two days into one. the next day was to be 100+ miles in the scorching heat and low headwind.

oh boy.