51. Elizabethtown, Illinois

Day 51:  Tuesday, August 11, 1981
Carbondale to Elizabethtown:  80 miles

Today was a gravel-and-no-shorts day.

We're back on the Bikecentennial route now.  It usually sticks to paved roads, but today included over 20 miles of gravel.  We chose an alternate route that avoided all but four miles of the rough stuff.  Luckily, the worst two of those four miles had been paved since the map was published.  If they hadn't been, I might well have had to walk up some hills today.

About an hour out of Carbondale, I realized that I had left my cycling shorts hanging up to dry.  I didn't want to ride an extra 20 miles, so I just called the TKE house and requested that they mail the shorts home for me.  I hope they do.  It's rough riding without them.

We had all kinds of ups and downs and detours today, and we covered about 80 miles, but the ride didn't tire me.  We started early and rode late, until 7:00, so the pace was no faster than usual.

In Eddyville, we bumped into Georgia, the girl I had met back in Ste. Genevieve.  She was traveling considerably faster than we were (she told us her nickname was Choo Choo!), but she slowed down and stuck with us for the rest of the day.

Tunnel Hill is a wide spot in the road that used to be a small town and now has only a post office and a never-used railroad siding.  The NYC railroad line passes through a tunnel under the hill we climbed as we left town.

Camping behind the church

It was 7:00 when we reached Elizabethtown, and it took us a good half hour to find a place to stay.  The town park was off limits to campers, and the policeman wasn't too friendly.  We tried the Catholic and Methodist churches, but couldn't find anyone in charge.  The Baptist preacher was on vacation, but the #2 man gave us the nod, and we camped behind the church.  It was built in 1877, and it and the parsonage are beautiful, if small, buildings.

Dewy web

Little cat feet

Since it was late, we skipped cooking, went downtown, and had a delicious pizza (Georgia had delicious chicken).  No beer, but it still tasted good.