The corn is as high as a jackrabbit's eye, and it looks...

Day 21, May 13 Springfield to Tuscola, IL

Data: 97.4 miles Riding time 4:58 (15.6 mph avg)

A visit from Joe, Yvonne, and Nick Buckley, the T-shirt exchange, and a late breakfast were the highlights for today.

The ride was 97 miles into a significant headwind, and it was completely flat, and we were surrounded by soon-to-be cornfields for as far as we could see. I vote it the least interesting ride so far. At least the weather was great, and I didn't get a flat tire. That's me at the very back of the draft line. You can see that pretty soon the corn will grow and prevent this kind of picture angle.

We also passed another horse-pulled cart, this one a Mennonite. You can see how we travel faster than the buggies. You also can see what kind of scenery we had today - those telephone poles go straight as far as you can see.

Since the ride was "short", the tour leader didn't want us to leave until 9 am, giving us a forced rest. We walked about 0.8 miles to an International House of Pancakes for breakfast, and as we left, the families for Mother's Day were arriving. Along the way today, we passed a Mennonite church. There were horse buggies collected around it.

Check out some of the "road hazards" we face riding across our country! Even though it appears this monster is going to crush us from behind, we of course were going faster than he was and had just passed him. I'm the 4th rider in the line.

About 20 of us arrived in Tuscola at the same time. 17 of them went directly to the Dairy Queen across the street for a milkshake. I was one of the three who went to the motel, to see if the Buckleys had arrived yet. They hadn't, but they did about 10 minutes later, after I put my bike in the room. They drove me to the DQ as the riders were leaving, and they treated me to a large cherry shake. Yum!

We then went swimming in the pool. Joe is tossing Nick, who had a blast.

We later had our "Rap" (the discussion of tomorrow's ride, followed by the t-shirt exchange they told us from the start that we would have "sometime". I got the shirt I truly wanted; it has a glass of beer and says "It's 5 o'clock somewhere".

The Buckleys took me to dinner, and I got carbo-loaded-up for tomorrow's ride. It was so nice of them to come visit me.