Springfield to Champaign, Illinois

87 miles, 5:22 riding, 1,034 feet climbing, 4,357 Calories

Someone said, grain elevators are America's castles. When you first see them on the horizon, they do look like castles. I will never view them in quite the same way again. I think a photographic essay on the heartland's elevators would make a great coffee table book.

I've been accused of being focused on chocolate milkshakes instead of the great country I'm riding through. I must confess that's often true; sometimes the promise of a treat at the end of the day gets you through the last few miles like nothing else.

Hank asked an interesting question at last night's route rap, "how much time do we spend looking at the road and how much time do we look around us?" For most of this trip, I think I'm concentrating on the road and traffic more than eighty percent of the time, and only observing my surroundings less than twenty percent. For safety, you have no choice but to watch the pavement for holes, glass, bumps, tires, etc., and keep an eye out for cars trying to pass. Of course, when you are riding through endless fields of wheat, you don't have much to break the monotony. When we come into towns or have more diverse scenery, then the percentage spent away from the road in front of me increases.

Illinois is pretty flat, at least the part we have been riding through. There are lots of trees, cornfields, and poor roads. We try to stay off main highways and ride less traveled country roads. Unfortunately, country roads often do not have shoulders, are not very wide, and are not as well maintained as the state highways.

Under partly cloudy skies and cool temperatures, we left Springfield at the normal time and rode into a headwind all the way to the first SAG stop. The road eventually turned east and the wind was sideways to the road, less of a nuisance. We stopped at a Dairy Queen for ice cream and met a bevy of beautiful ladies in Clinton (as in the President - roll your eyes and sigh, please). The women come from their daily exercise classes to DQ for coffee and conversation. After the second SAG, Peter and Willie pulled me into town at a fast pace, for which I'm eternally grateful.

Champaign is a university town and boasts some very quiet, tree-lined streets. Tomorrow is a well deserved "rest" day; it's time for laundry, bike cleaning, and maybe a bike ride…if it doesn't rain.