Distance: 32 miles Rockwood, Il to Goreville, Il
Average Speed: 11.1 mph
Altitude Gain: 3246
Average Temperature: 95
We left Rockwood this morning using the alternate route that was along the Mississippi River. The first few miles had a lot of truck traffic and then it went closer to the river and I was pretty much alone on the roads. It was interesting to see the 15 foot levees they had constructed to hold back the flood waters of the river. There were markers showing how high the flood waters had been on years before the levees were built. Some of the flood waters had been over 13 feet!
Kathie and I had planned to meet in Murphysboro, but when I got there I could not find her and my cell phone had no service. Murphysboro was a big enough town I thought for sure it would have cell phone service. I tried to use the Kentucky Fried Chicken Wi-Fi but still couldn’t get my phone to work. I rode down the street to the library, but their Wi-Fi was shut off because the library was closed due to the virus. I asked a couple of people if I could use their phones and they didn’t have service either. I finally found a convenience store clerk that had a land line and was able to talk to Kathie. We decided she should go into Carbondale and check out problems she was having with her new Verizon phone. Carbondale was too big of a city to find each other in so we decided to meet in Goreville. It is on the other side of Carbondale. Carbondale is home to the University of Illinois. I ended up riding through their agriculture campus and it covered a lot of acres.
It had been a hot day and I was really low on water, so I started looking for some place to get some water. I saw a couple outside of their house getting the mail and requested some water. The man took my water bottles in the house and came out with ice water in them. It tasted so good. They said they have had more cyclists riding past their place in other years. Cyclists have camped in their back yard in other years. They told me that they had seen another cyclist go by within the last half hour. It met the description of Dave. They also told me that I was a few miles and a couple of big hills away from Goreville. They told me about a state park campground that was just a few miles outside of Goreville. They said it was a good campground that their children stay in when they come to visit.
I was anxious to get to Goreville. On one of the big hills the couple had told me about, I caught up with Dave. I rode along side of Dave for a little bit and then I rode on ahead. I met Kathie at a closed up Dollar General store parking lot and had a great lunch. While I was eating we waved down Dave. He said he had had enough for the day and was going to stay in the state campground. We gave him some cold water and he rode off. I was burned out for the day and we decided to stay at the state park also. About the time we got camp set up, it began to rain hard. I was thankful for the trailer and hoped Dave had a good tent. I didn’t cover many miles today.
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