On Monday morning, Rend Lake was covered with a nice blanket of clouds making biking almost ideal! The terperature was mild and I was really looking forward to this day. Because we stayed in a KOA instead of Wayne Fitzgerald State Park, like originally planned, we needed to go a few extra miles to get back on the planned route. These two pictures show that there was no doubt that we were biking in Illinois.


The maps that were used to plan the route were very helpful because we had all nice roads with great surfaces. When we left this morning we made plans to stop in Oakdale, IL because it was about 50 miles into the trip. We were both getting hungry and in need of fuel so when we pulled into town and saw a sign for the Country Kitchen we were happy, since it was quite a small town.

We pulled our bikes onto the porch where the front door was we noticed a sign that made our stomachs growl a little bit more. They were closed on Mondays! What kind of an establishment is this. I guess in small town USA you can decide what days to be open and what days to be closed and two bikers just passing through are at the mercy of your schedule!

We looked and saw up the street that there was a convenience mart where we satisfied our growls with a sandwich and some very satisfying cold chocolate milk!! It was awesome!! Well, the campground wasn’t coming to us so we were quickly back on the bikes and on to the next cities. Even though it was the longest day of our trip the day was quite uneventful and without incident, thank the LORD! We just pedaled past flat mile after flat mile. It was nice to have flat. The excitement of the day began just outside of the city of Summerville, IL.
Having gotten off track before, we are much more conscientious with the maps and if we think there is even a possibility of getting off track we ask someone where we are. We pulled into a driveway where there was a silver Taurus and a maroon Tahoe parked. We thought they would be able to get us on the right track. Dad walked up to passenger side window as I stood and held his bike. The passenger motioned him o the other side of the car. The two drivers of the vehicles were talking and Dad was an obvious nuisance to them. They did not want Dad there and were quick to get us on our way. Dad noticed that one of them was wearing a flack jacket and had a Sherrif badge. They did not look like the kind of guys that would be wearing them so he was quick to get on his way too. As we pedaled away we were hoping that they did not drive up behind us and run us over or shoot us. We were convinced that they were up to no good and that dirty cop activity was going on. Okay, we have probably watched too many bad cop shows out of Hollywood. They passed us a little later without any incident. We soon came into the town of Summerville and got our treats to get us the rest of the way. We were sitting enjoying them and those same two vehicles drove by again and stopped in front of a house down the street. Two of the men went to the front and two went to the back. As they stood there a white car went by and two of the men jumped into the Tahoe and sped after the white car and made the arrest. The silver car left and then we saw them pull up on a side street. Another different white truck pulled by and the silver car pulled in behind and arrested both of the drivers in that vehicle too! So, instead of disrupting dirty cop activity, we were actually interrupting the plans for the raid. OOPS!
As we pulled into Madison County, we joined the MCT (Madison County Transit), a former railroad bed that had been turned into a paved bicycle path.

It made the final 13 miles to the campsite wonderful!! The path afforded us a beautiful view of the St. Louis Arch and then we were at our campsite.

Supper tonight was enjoyed with a distant cousin of my mother and we ate at a very nice Italian restaurant. Very good food and great preparation for the next day of biking!
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