June 3, 2021
Day 22 - Goreville, IL to Carbondale, IL
Bless my ass
We awoke at 6 am to poring rain and thunder. Even the outside of the basement was flooding, so instead of a quick morning exit, we did our usual leave at 8 routine.
The skies started to clear and we set off out of goreville for a short 27 mile ride. We quickly felt off our a game and stopped to snack and rest after only 8 miles. After that, Mary and I got separated for a while so I stopped to wait up. Finally I see her coming down the road, but no sign of Mark yet. After catching Mallory, we wait up and find out that mark stopped for a leak in his tire wall. He runs tubeless 2.75" tires and patched it with tape. Luckily the first stop in Carbondale was already the bike shop. We started off again and Mary saw a sign to take a picture of. I was right behind her and she hit the brakes. I swerved left to avoid her but Mallory was also passing us on the left. She hit my left bucket and went down. Her arm was scraped up and her left pannier had some light damage. We were definitely lucky and learned a lesson about being complacent about our riding. Greg happened to be with us and kept making fun of the way we ride. We usually aren't bad, but our first day with another group didn't show our best performance. We kept stopping along the way to snack and avoid rain spots.
It finally cleared up as we approached Carbondale. We were in traffic and someone yelled at us about the trip. They said to Mary " ooh girl bless those legs!" She replied, "bless my ass!", Which seems like a weird thing to say unless you understand saddle sores. We hit the bike shops and I got a new set of pedals while mark was across the street at another shop dropping his bike off for new tubeless tires. We are going to try and pick it up tomorrow morning. He got a tiny old road bike as a loaner. Meanwhile we went on a shopping spree looking for a new summer bag and shoes. We were unsuccessful at dicks and a local outdoor store. Mallory stocked up on gu's at dicks tho. We stopped at the weed store to get edibles. Didn't know Illinois was recreational? And found a vegan friendly cafe run by Elaine. She said come back in the morning and she would hook us up so we have our hopes up for tomorrow morning. We found burritos and dairy queen for dinner and rode back to the hotel in the dark. It wasn't easy riding around Carbondale, but the city pretty much lived up to the hype we had.
Mileage:28
Altitude gain:?
Today's ride: 28 miles (45 km)
Total: 1,149 miles (1,849 km)
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