Day 30: Quincy to Springfield IL

This morning we were greeted by a bright, warming yellow orb rising in the eastern sky. Some of our oldest riders recall this object was once known as "the sun".  Accompanying this 'sun" was a light breeze from the east. Although we are still hopeful the headwind curse will end, we've also resigned ourselves to the possibility that this is the new normal prevailing wind.  At least the wind seemed light this morning, maybe 5 mph or less.  And we did have a blue sky -- something we haven't had the last few days.  So conditions could be far worse for riding 105 miles, which at this time is tough enough for our road-weary bodies.

Michael and I rode together to the first SAG stop.  The road ahead (behind him in the photo)
shows the rolling hills we would encounter along the way.  

Typical rolling hills during the first 30 miles today.  Thankfully, these early climbs
were not as steep as the ones on previous days, but they were tough enough
to force involuntary old-man noises out of us.

Beginning around Mile 20 and despite an increasing headwind and frequent hills,  I began to feel strong and decided to ride that way which presented an interesting dilemma.  Feeling strong makes me want to ride faster than usual. But riding faster than usual makes me less likely to take photos.  Compounding that problem is that my usual behavior is to take a photo of everything I see that interests me in some way (e.g. attractive, humorous, poignant, iconic, ironic, etc). Unfortunately, now that our path to Boston is traversing states close to my home state and ones in which I've ridden a bike frequently, most of the environment is very familiar to me and less novel. So the ride today was biased toward riding and away from documentation.  I looked for interesting land animals, but I saw none.  Because the streams we pass are beginning to contain transparent water instead of a murky brown emulsion, I looked for interesting fish, but I saw none.  I even looked for interesting inanimate objects, but I saw only a few.  So I dropped into the aerobars and I rode....until I spied something interesting.

At Mile 45, we crossed the Illinois River. 

Colorful windows at the Meredosia School on just the other side of the Illinois River bridge.

Typical  road  with no rideable shoulder over flat terrain after crossing the river.

One bright spot -- one of the few road blooms I could find along the way.

Although I had eaten well and often during the previous miles, I was losing energy and speed by the SAG stop at Mile 69.  I knew if I lingered there long that it would be tough to recover, if at all, so I checked in and out quickly after re-fueling fluids and eating a banana.  This would prove to be an unsuccessful tactic within 5 miles when the headwind seemed stronger (whether it was or not), the temperature seemed higher (whether it was or not), and my body aches were more frequent (which they were).  So as strength early in the day drove my speed upward, so too did weakness later reduce my speed to a more modest basal level. Unfortunately, going slower did not increase the photographic interest, so I don't think I missed much on this route today.

But whatever photos I might have taken or did take, or experiences I might have had or did have on the route from Quincy to Springfield, they all paled in comparison to the hospitality and fantastic food provided by fellow XC2014 rider Randy Germeraad and his wonderful wife Kathy who live in Springfield, and co-hosted by their irrepressible, love-hound Henry.  Randy was a frequent riding partner during the early weeks of our journey, but had to leave our group at Liberal KS because of severe inflammation to his iliotibial band (ITB) on one side.  Randy and Kathy arranged a shuttle van to transport all of us from the hotel to their beautiful home for a lavish spread of food and drink.  It was a wonderful luxurious treat for everyone.

Group XC2014 photo at Randy's and Kathy's home
(XC2014 rider Michelle not yet returned to tour)
  

Squeak likes cheese!

Randy brings out the homemade ice cream!

CrossRoads Day 30 Google Earth image and Elevation Profile
Quincy to Springfield, IL

Progress Map
(Black = progress-to-date; Blue = planned route)