August 14, 2017
to Chester: meeting up with friends
After two restdays with our friend Anita in Carterville it is time to get moving again. We planned a route north of Carbondale to avoid the city traffic. Anita rides out with us. The morning is cool and a little drizzly, but we'll take that any day.
In Murphysborough we have our first break, then a couple more rollers and we reach the flat lands along the Mississippi River. The road is good with light traffic, until we get to about 15km before Chester. There is a coal unloading facility on the River here, and huge barges filled with coal are unloaded into trucks for the trip to a powerplant. The road through Chester is almost non-stop coal trucks. The drivers are mostly courteous though, they wait until it is safe to pass and give us plenty of room.
First stop in Chester is to get a photo at the city welcome sign. Chester is the birthplace of Popeye. The artist who created him lived here and based many of his characters on local people. All around downtown are statues of the different characters in the popeye cartoons.
Our bed for tonight is at the "Fraternal order of Eagles Lodge". This non-profit organization runs a bar/restaurant in town and has a shed in the parking lot where cyclist can stay for free. They provide hot shower, toilet and WiFi. We arrive at about one, and only a half hour later our friends Jim and Cheryl from Cowden show up. Rachel and Cheryl are long time friends, and they made the effort to drive here today and spend the afternoon with us.
We visit and drive to the must-see places around Chester. The bridge visitor center, Popeye statues, covered bridge etc. Dinner is at a downtown restaurant where we visit for most of the afternoon. We go back down to the bridge to watch the sunset. All in all a great afternoon catching up with friends.
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Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 37,220 km (23,114 miles)
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