Cornucopia

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Our hosts at the Greenhouse B&B continued to ply us with food Tuesday morning and brought us freshly cooked corn and hard boiled eggs to speed us on our way. We reluctantly left their oasis and resumed riding through the corn. This region of Illinois is carved into regular squares that are one mile long, one mile wide, and perfectly aligned with the points of the compass. It may be efficient but it sure isn't interesting. I passed the time by looking for shapes in the clouds (train, Marge Simpson, dog) and estimating how many ears of corn were in the square mile blocks we rode past (50 million). The temperature was great, the sky was blue with puffy white clouds (perfect for shape-finding), through the wind was less than helpful. There continued to be no grocery stores along the route so we made do with food from gas stations and mini-marts. Mike managed to get a veggie sandwich from one, and we found bananas and an orange at another.

We ended the day in the town of Wenona, or "Fabulous Wenona" as they like to call themselves. The town allows camping in their city park and our lovely host Sheila got us set up with access to the shower. Illinois has some kind of bug that lives in the trees and makes a frightful racket just before sunset. These bugs welcomed us to the park but thankfully shut up as night fell.

Today was a rest day. We had second breakfast at a local restaurant and did a good amount of lounging around our campsite. Lunch was pizza slices from the town gas station. There is no grocery store here. Later we sat in the town library and abused their free wifi, then we got milkshakes for health reasons. By coincidence the weekly farmers' market was taking place across the street and we went over to see what we could scrounge for dinner. The farmers apologized for the lack of variety as they are having a poor year but the spread looked great to us. We got some potatoes, tomatoes, onion, and corn to go with our chilli beans. Later Sheila stopped by with some more corn that we have stashed away for tomorrow's dinner. There is another cyclist camping out here tonight so we swapped some stories while eating dinner. It was nice to have some company and realize that we are still capable of civilized conversation.

Yesterday's miles: 61
Today's: NADA!

Class act

Lens flare

These guys made good eggs

The Green House

There are frogs in here

Flower power the next edition

Whoom (That's the sound they make)


Comments

  1. the Old GuyJuly 25, 2018 at 6:56 PM

    Repeat your new mantra after me: "It's gonna get better. It's gonna get better. It's gonna get better." Repeat as necessary

    ReplyDelete
  2. CheriJuly 25, 2018 at 8:10 PM

    Your picture of the chickens reminded me of the chicken coops in most of the back yards in the neighborhood where I grew up. My understanding is that during World War II many families raised chickens and grew vegetables in order to help with food production. By the time we lived in the neighborhood in the '50s and '60s, prosperity was such that families had a second car, moms bought their eggs at supermarkets, and city families were no longer raising chickens. All those empty chicken coops made for wonderful forts and club houses. During the summer we played in and about those coops for hours.

    Ride safely.

    Cheri

    ReplyDelete
  3. Debbi StevensonJuly 27, 2018 at 3:05 AM

    What a lovely oasis. I guess hills would make a change from corn. You must be over half way now. Xx

    ReplyDelete

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