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July 9, 2019—Golconda, Illinois


Today was our longest cycling day with the need to cover 80 miles.  To keep from being overwhelming we played a mind game. At our breakfast stop 25 miles into our ride we recalculated and said that we only had a 55 mile day. We did that several times and it was working until we got to the final 10 miles.  We were beat and had to cycle 8 miles of long rollers in the heat of the day. The last 2 miles were down hill but provided no real relief.  

After we crossed the Ohio River from Kentucky to Illinois, we stopped in Old Shawneetrown, the oldest town in Illinois. There we got to see a stately old bank building, but not much else.  Because of flooding the town moved 3 miles further from the river.  We did stop at a maintenance shop where they gladly provided us extra water bottles for the remainder of our ride.

Today's bright spot was a lunch place called Garden of the Gods Outpost.  We found it after giving up on our planned route which turned out to be a rough gravel road.  We were served fantastic hot dogs and soft ice cream.  The owner, Elizabeth, took good care of us and said she was going to put our picture on Facebook with a mention of our journey. We also met a family of 4 from Texas who like us are following the Ohio River, but in the opposite direction. They were interested in our blog to identify towns and points of interest for them to see. We were cycling thru the Garden of the Gods Recreation Area—a 3,300+ acres of natural forested terrain, rock formations & bluffs for hiking, camping & picnics.

Our destination was a small unique hotel at the top of one more climb.  Surprising, the small town has several restaurants for our dinner.

Pictures

Map


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