Tuesday 6^th April , Ramada Hotel, Carbondale Il.

21,00

6.00 this morning. I wake from a strange dream where I am being chased through a swamp by Dolly Parton and a pack of dogs,

Breakfast at 6.45 in the hotel.. No oat-meal for the second morning running. Not a good start.

The only other occupant of the lobby is a woman who has been attending her father’s funeral. “We wasn’t close. Not me and Dad. Now me and my sister, we’re as close as the bark on a tree.”

Today was a relatively short day, just 40 miles, but the head wind made it seem a lot longer. Every now and then, a turn in the road would mean it was behind us for a few miles and we would fly along, but generally it was a pain.

We passed through the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge, a large bird sanctuary with lakes. (pay attention, this is the nature bit) Very pretty with trees in bud and cherry blossom everywhere. (That’s enough of that.) More importantly it was virtually flat for about ten miles.

We got to Carbondale at 12.00. Very early for us. We booked into the Ramada and decided to go into town for something to eat. Only there wasn’t really a town there. Carbondale has a population of 27,000 and, as far as we could see, its centre is just a windswept grid of rather run-down streets with hardly any signs of natural life. The out of town malls have won again We had a beer in a fairly grim bar and a goodish Thai meal in the only restaurant we could find open. Then on to a bike shop for a few minor repairs and purchases of replacement kit - I left a glove behind when Mike got his first puncture, he has lost his spare, spare hat (that is not a typo).

Then back to the hotel. I got my laundry done and we planned the route for tomorrow which should be fun. More strong winds and some thunderstorms are forecast ( with a possibility of locusts on Thursday and the slaughter of the first-born on Friday.)

Given that there was nothing in Carbondale, I suggested getting a cab to Chicago for the evening but the round trip is 750 miles so, once you added in a tip, it would be quite expensive. Instead we went to a Japanese place near the hotel which turned out to be pretty good. Very strange; wall to wall beef burgers for three weeks then a Thai and a Japanese meal in the same day.

We passed 1000 miles today. Only about another 2700 to go. Sob.