Today’s Date: July 12, 2024

Today’s Start Point: Marion, Illinois

Today’s End Point: Golconda, Illinois

Today’s Miles: 63.15 Miles

Cumulative Miles: 3,229.68 Miles

The goal today was to get back on the official Trans Am route and get to the Ohio River. I needed to ride about ten miles to get back to the route and then continue southeast to arrive at my final destination of Golconda, Illinois, which sits on the Ohio River. This would be my last night in Illinois.

Today promised to be a real scorcher, with high humidity, so another early start. I tried to make the course back to the official route as simple as possible to eliminate any stellar navigation blunders I might add to the mix.

Living in northern Illinois, the impression that everyone has is that Illinois is flat, flat, flat. As today and yesterday proved, everyone is wrong, wrong, wrong. At the end of the day I would climb 3,500 feet in 60 miles, never with a climb over 3/4 of a mile long. The southern part of Illinois is definitely a rolling and lush landscape.

Before 9:00 am, I generally don’t have trouble with the hills, but after 9:00 am the sun is up and the heat builds. Whether it is just in my head (which is also ok), but the adjustments the mechanic Gabriel made yesterday made a real difference. The pedals felt smoother, so even if it is in my head, I am going with idea that there were actual mechanical improvements.

Once back on the Trans Am route, the hills became more numerous and steeper. The heat was getting to me when another miraculous appearance of a Dollar Store occurred. A couple of Gatorades helped beat the heat a little bit and I was back on the road with about 20 miles to go.

A few minutes later I came across a father/daughter duo that were doing the westerly Trans Am route. They were on their way to Carbondale where they were going to take a rest day. The father was in his 50’s and his daughter was in her 20’s. The father was only going to stay with his daughter for a couple of more weeks and then she would continue on. Like other foreigners that are doing the ride that I have met on this trip, she needs to finish within 90 days due to her Visa. As usual, we had our conversation with a highway between us, but it gave each of us a chance to point out various points that we would encounter, both good and bad. The heat was really getting to me so I had to cut the conversation short.

I continued on my way to Golconda, and arrived at about 10:30 am. I was glad that I could get the 60 miles in by then, because I was really overheating.

I stopped at a Sinclair Station when I arrived and scoped out where the hotel was located. Of course it was .8 miles south up a 13% gradient. Oh well, the promise of air conditioning beckoned.

When I arrived at the “hotel”, I have seen better. The proprietor, who is not on sight, let me in the room early for a fee (which I am happy to report is very rare). In order to enter the room, I needed a code which allows them to run the property remotely.

I am glad I was able to get into my room early since a big thunderstorm hit at about 1:00 pm and lasted until 4:00 pm.

A note on the days ahead: You will probably notice that my daily mileage while I am in Kentucky will be less than what I have been doing. This is because of four things: accommodations of any kind are unevenly spread along the route and I am opting for shorter as opposed to longer days; I am starting to feel the cumulative effect of the heat wave that seems to have been going on for weeks; I don’t want to face the inevitable dogs in a tired state (I know, enough with the dogs already, but it has become an obsession) and; the Appalachian Mountains will be more like the Ozark Mountains, steep and numerous.