Day 3 - ending near Westville, IL - Downstate Illinois

July 9, 2025

Day 3 - ending near Westville, IL

Woke up at 5:50am this morning. It took me a while staring at my watch to figure out it was actually that late. I made coffee with the motel room pot, then got started working on the report. I said to myself I'd work on it until 8:00am, but continued on and got it posted at 8:35am.

I left the motel at 9:26am, heading to the nearby Red Wheel Restaurant, to find it's closed on Wednesdays. I crossed the road to Circle-K, where I purchased Gatorade and items for breakfast. I sat on a curb in the shade on the northwest side of the building (almost behind the building) to eat. That worked well.

Next chore was to get to the southeast side of Monticello. There's a bicycle trail I used part of the way. I was able to get fairly close for a picture of a bird who was looking for a critter for breakfast.

My destination today is Forest Glen Preserve. Today's riding is the longest I had planned for this trip, at 61 miles. Most all of it is straight east. The roads were in excellent shape, and not busy at all. I was helped today with a tailwind, but it did make me hotter, because there wasn't much of a breeze blowing past me.

At 11:30am, I noticed a fellow in a bean field with a hoe, while a small girl nearby appeared to be looking for flowers. As I passed, the fellow said, "You want to give us a hand here with the hoeing?" I told him this wasn't the first time I've received an offer to help field workers I've passed. He stopped his work so we could talk. I shared details about my trip, and he told me some about why he was hoeing this field. The field has some watercrest (I think that's right), but it will probably take some spraying to get rid of it. The little girl had found some flowers - white and purple clover blossoms. I told her how the bunnies in our yard like to munch on those. I also talked some about the USDA research lab I retired from, since that's where the little knowledge I have about farming came from. I was thrilled when they accepted my request for a picture. I think it turned out well.

The intersection with 300E Road was where I was when noon arrived (I was on 900N). 13.0 miles done so far. After writing that down I rode on another 4 minutes for a better spot to get off the road for a break.

Moving on, at 1:30pm I rode through Tolono, stopping at Casey's there for chocolate milk and peanuts. At 3:50pm I crossed IL-49. 4:45pm is when I passed through Jamaica. Crossed IL-1 at 5:59pm.

For some reason, the signal for WILL-FM radio station faded out as I passed south of Urbana. This afternoon's radio listening was all over the place - Religious, Country, Oldies from the '80s on, even a station playing "Pink Pony Girl"!

I shut the radio off when I got to the park entrance at 6:32pm. I'd selected site #39 by 6:55pm. A park worker showed up shortly after that to accept my $24 camping fee (includes electricity). I'm close to the shower house, and have plans for that next.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there's hardly any cell phone signal at this campground. Trying to send the evening report with three attached pictures didn't work. Sending just the text, and later one reduced-sized picture, did work, eventually.

I went through the three bottles of Gatorade I'd bought today, plus a lot of water. I'm glad to have my longest day behind me while still feeling in pretty good shape.

Jeff

Today's ride: 63 miles (101 km)
Total: 153 miles (246 km)

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