31/8/2011 Chester to Grand Tower,IL
Ben the fourth member of the crew had been spewing all nigh, poor bugger.
It was good to have showered and shaved here after two nights without a shower, not smelly though, thats my opinion.
Four of us went for breakfast at a diner, Ben was still dodgy. Trying to get a hair cut was hard work as all were booked out.
Heading out of town on IL3, the shoulder was non existent and trucks were frequent. This stretch of road for the 8 miles I had to ride on it was the most dangerous to date. Semis were blowing my peak hat off as the came towards me, a mental note was made to get a hat saver.
The rest of the fide was on levees till Neunert. A huge coal stckpile was seen at Cora with coal coming on conveyer from barges and more being ingeniously unloaded automatically from a huge train.
Arriving at Neunert, the bar was open and a couple of pork chops were devoured with five cans of Sprite. I’m turning into a soda junkie!
The owner was a woman of 36 with two children, we talked about things in general for an hour. Her husdand was third generation in the area.
She went onto say that they had had huge rainfalls early in spring and all the paddocks were flooded.
Upon leaving, the stench endured earlier on was revealed, it was dead fish around the edges of ponds that were drying out from the earlier heavy rains and the now incredibly hot days.
This stench was endured for many miles to come.
I was overcome with a serious bout of diarrhea, fear a second onslaught I stopped at a house further down the road and asked for some toilet paper, explaining my predicament, moments later a new roll was in my possession. The guy who gave it to me had a pushbike in his front yard painted military green, odd, Any another guy came past on a bike and the guy who gave me the loo paper headed off with him. I stopped to talk to his wife, later setting off and catching up with these two guys, they weren’t exactly fitness freaks.
We had a yarn for a mile or so, it turned out htey were unemployed, a bit younger than me and said they had to do some so they were growing dope to make ends meet and keep busy.
One of them showed me his shoes and said they were the best he had, they were nearly beyond use.
These guys were examples of what alot of people are experiencing in these smaller towns, that have been visited in Southern Illinois. They are decent people with no hope in hell of finding work that doesn’t exist.
From here it was decided to spend the night at Grand Tower camp ground on the river.
Arriving just before dark a good shower was taken and hand washing done. The light breeze would dry things overnight.
Camp was set up under an awning to avoid the morning dew. It was at least 26℃ when the nest was utilised. Prior to this the camp was Racoon proofed.
The MR was no more than 150m away, barges were passing mid stream and trains were letting everyone know their location with the familiar blow of their horns.
Ben the fourth member of the crew had been spewing all nigh, poor bugger.
It was good to have showered and shaved here after two nights without a shower, not smelly though, thats my opinion.
Four of us went for breakfast at a diner, Ben was still dodgy. Trying to get a hair cut was hard work as all were booked out.
Heading out of town on IL3, the shoulder was non existent and trucks were frequent. This stretch of road for the 8 miles I had to ride on it was the most dangerous to date. Semis were blowing my peak hat off as the came towards me, a mental note was made to get a hat saver.
The rest of the fide was on levees till Neunert. A huge coal stckpile was seen at Cora with coal coming on conveyer from barges and more being ingeniously unloaded automatically from a huge train.
Arriving at Neunert, the bar was open and a couple of pork chops were devoured with five cans of Sprite. I’m turning into a soda junkie!
The owner was a woman of 36 with two children, we talked about things in general for an hour. Her husdand was third generation in the area.
She went onto say that they had had huge rainfalls early in spring and all the paddocks were flooded.
Upon leaving, the stench endured earlier on was revealed, it was dead fish around the edges of ponds that were drying out from the earlier heavy rains and the now incredibly hot days.
This stench was endured for many miles to come.
I was overcome with a serious bout of diarrhea, fear a second onslaught I stopped at a house further down the road and asked for some toilet paper, explaining my predicament, moments later a new roll was in my possession. The guy who gave it to me had a pushbike in his front yard painted military green, odd, Any another guy came past on a bike and the guy who gave me the loo paper headed off with him. I stopped to talk to his wife, later setting off and catching up with these two guys, they weren’t exactly fitness freaks.
We had a yarn for a mile or so, it turned out htey were unemployed, a bit younger than me and said they had to do some so they were growing dope to make ends meet and keep busy.
One of them showed me his shoes and said they were the best he had, they were nearly beyond use.
These guys were examples of what alot of people are experiencing in these smaller towns, that have been visited in Southern Illinois. They are decent people with no hope in hell of finding work that doesn’t exist.
From here it was decided to spend the night at Grand Tower camp ground on the river.
Arriving just before dark a good shower was taken and hand washing done. The light breeze would dry things overnight.
Camp was set up under an awning to avoid the morning dew. It was at least 26℃ when the nest was utilised. Prior to this the camp was Racoon proofed.
The MR was no more than 150m away, barges were passing mid stream and trains were letting everyone know their location with the familiar blow of their horns.
