Day 29 Rensselaer IN to Kempton, IL 55 miles Total 1354.9 mi

 Leaving the hotel, Allane asked the hostess whether there was anything she should see or do locally.  The woman just smiled and shook her head, and "No" was all she said!  Then added, "Just corn and more corn."

It was raining this morning, so the riders donned their rain gear and headed out.  The hostess was correct...corn and more corn, gird roads a mile square, so that at an intersection you can see a four-mile square section.

We crossed into Illinois with no fanfare other than the drumming of the rain.

In the pouring rain, the riders slogged to Clifton, a town with a population of 231.  Happily, two of those people were Palli and Deb, who were working the Main Street Diner and Pizzeria.  They fed us well as the riders rested and dried off a bit.




Deb (L) and Palli, short for Pallas Athena!

It wasn't too far to the town of Kempton, another town boasting a population of 231. AND the rain had dropped off, allowing the sun to steam out.
We reached the Greenhouse Bed and Breakfast, a tiny oasis of green in the midst of flat fields of corn, and met our hosts Guia and Mark and their dog Apollo.
We showered and relaxed on the patio and then....here came the rain again.  Mark can see it coming across the fields and can pretty much gauge how long it will take to get there.


Guia is a true chef who caters large and small events in their beautiful gardens, and she prepared a dinner for us that was unbelievably delicious.  We learned about their life in Illinois and their past in the Peace Corps in other countries.




Look at the size and scope of this gourmet breakfast!





View of their corn crib (looks like a barn) from the balcony.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 78 The FINISH! Snohomish, WA to Brackett's Landing, Edmonds, WA 22.2 miles Grand Total 3,820.5 mi

Image
STEVE HAS FINISHED HIS RIDE!!!!!! Son Ben, with great grandson Chip, grandson Elijah, granddaughter Briana, Steve, grandson Jacob, DIL Alison, granddaughter Alyssa and Allane celebrate at Brackett's Landing Steve dips his tires as Ben narrates for the Zoom participants and Brian Soergel, the editor of the Edmonds Beacon newspaper, gets the story. Like 67 other mornings this summer, Steve woke up and got ready to ride.  It was not a long ride, but it certainly was a momentous one.  I actually left before Steve for the first time, intent of finding my way to Brackett's Landing in Edmonds and ensuring a parking spot.  It is indeed a busy place for walkers, beachgoers, Tai Chi practicers, and scuba divers.   When the wildfires west of Winthrop forced us to find an alternate route through the Cascades, Steve elected to come through Stevens Pass along Rt 2.  We needed to find a place (originally supposed to be Anacortes) where he could dip his tires into the wate...
Read more

Day 1 - Belfast to Windsor; 35.7 miles

Image
My dear friends, John Williams and Judd Thompson, joined me for this first leg of the journey. John Benziger, who rode this leg yesterday because of the sketchy forecast for today, will join us tomorrow and onward.  Allane, bless her soul, got us to the start point and then drove the car back to Windsor. We dipped our tires in the Atlantic waters off the Belfast pier to not just officially start this journey, but to bless it for a safe and successful finish. The three riders for this day left Belfast under a partly cloudy sky. We anticipated colder weather, heavy clouds and winds. It turned out to be an almost perfect riding day. The clouds cleared, sun came out - we even lathered on sunscreen, and the winds were light. A remarkably nice day though we all went in with layered clothing, rain gear in our panniers, and a stiffened resolve to ride on regardless of the weather.  John, Steve and Judd The ride from Belfast to Windsor is one I've done several times in training. It's n...
Read more

Day 76 Leavenworth, WA to Skykomish, WA 51.0 miles Total 3,756.1 mi

Image
 The Enzian Inn in Leavenworth was above average in all respects.  When Steve learned that they offered breakfast, he signed up for the 7:30 seating and decided to sleep in.  Since he has not had a down day, this turned out to be a great idea.  He got a good night's sleep and filled up on a delicious breakfast.  They had an omelette station as well as fruit, meat, cinnamon rolls, pastries, muesli, and special yeast waffles with an amazing berry sauce.   He was off at 8:10am  for the last challenging mountain pass climb of the ride.  Stevens Pass was an elevation gain of 3,331 feet.  He stopped at the rest area after about 17 mies.  After that, he just climbed.   I was waiting for him at the top of the pass when he came riding up at about 12:40.   Finally reaching the peak! The ski area was all closed up, but there were a lot of day hikers all throughout the mountains.  Steve had a little lunch of tortilla, s...
Read more