Day 34: Belvidere to Coal City

105.20 mi max 26.0 6:57.01 avg 15.1

This weather reminds me of Trinidad. It is hot and humid. I went into my tent this afternoon and sat on the floor for a few minutes. It was more like a sauna, and when I moved, there was a big wet spot where I'd been. Well, two hours later, the wet spot was still there. What separates this from Trinidad is the predictability of rain. If only we could get some rain, we might have a chance of surviving this.

I saw my first Dunkin Donuts since Seattle. While that is a questionable measure of "progress," it does mean that I'm definitely making my way east.

Today I rode with Dom & Kim. Mostly backroads, very bumpy. I guess they have expansion joints in the road, but they aren't friendly surfaces for cyclists. Lots of corn & beans for scenery. We did have one unique rest stop today. There's a guy, Lyle, who has two BARNS full of bikes - the barns are so full that bikes are oozing out at the seams. Well, maybe it's not that bad - but he does a lot of repair work on old bikes, and chances are pretty good that you'll find your first, second, and maybe even third bike somewhere in his barns. The red barn with the bikes is Lyle's; the barn that's being held up by posts is just a random, ramshackle barn.

This campground, here in Coal City, is terrible. There are ants everywhere. The bathroom is so hot that it makes the sauna of my tent attractive. The showers don't drain (also like my tent). As soon as I turned off the hot water, I started sweating again and my dry clothes became my wet clothes. There is a lake here, created by the mining process. The water barely qualified as refreshing, as it was like a lukewarm bath. And it had that green, post-mining tinge.

Last night, Paula was very apologetic that there would be a pizza night - but I thought it was great. Especially the dessert pizza, one that was apple & another that was cherry. In other very exciting news, Debby finished her first-ever century. She came in right in the nick of time, before dinner. It was very cool - Brian went out to meet her at the entrance and escort her into camp, and the rest of us formed a receiving line. Our slightly-damaged Deb didn't make it into tonight, although I can hardly blame her. It's so much work to move around without an injury. I think she's heading to Chicago and will meet up with us later on.