Day 29. Eddyville to Carbondale. 'After The Storm".

These geese were at The Grassy Lake in the Shawnee national forest. They looked so neat just cruising along.

Tacoma Road. The way point on my GPS says we go down there.

I have no idea what these are. I wouldn't have believe it if i hadn't seen them for myself. They almost look fake, don't they?

Leaving Goreville, we go under that bridge, and turn right.

At a pit stop (You know what I mean), I composed this shot of nature and tranquility at it's finest.

Where i parked my bike while I was doing my thing.

The place with all the thunder and lightnig I'm going to tell you about.

Cute, I wanted to pet um.

This white tail doe was actually in someone yard. It wasn't afraid of anybody and allowed me to shoot her. With my camera of course.

This is a wild daisy. About t5he size of a dime. They are all over the side of the roads.

Lisa cruising through the Shawnee National Forest.

Barbara and Joan. They were fun to talk too. They wanted to have lunch with us, but we were already running late.

I wonder how much soup one of these guys would make? Hungry anyone?


Day 29, Eddyville to Carbondale. 58.9 miles.

Aloha everybody, We made it to Carbondale. This is a good sized town of over 20,000. It has everything. But before I get started, let me take you back to last night........... Ahhhhh, last night. It was one of the most incredible nights of my life. It was as close to a near death experience that I can remember. Lisa and I had set up our tents, and took our showers and everything. So we decided to go up to the office area where there was wifi, and catch up on e-mail and update our blogs. While there, we checked the weather forecast like we always do to see how the coming days would be like. The prognosis was not good. There was a severe storm warning out that included four states, Illinois included. They predicted thunder, lightning, hail, and 60 mile an hour wind. And it was arriving as we were looking at it. The lightning lit up the sky non stop, and thunder echoed through the sky. The rain did not hit yet, but it was coming. I tried to get my stuff done so that I could go back to the tent to button things up. And go seek shelter in a real building. As I got to my tent, the rain started. lightly at first, then harder and harder. I decided to ride the storm out. So I stayed. Lisa had already gone to the shelter before the rain started, so she was already gone. I put all the things I didn't want to get wet such as my camera, dry cloths, cell phone, etc. into the dry bag, and put on my rain gear. Then it got bad. Real bad. The lightning and the thunder increased infrequency and intensity. I started praying like I've never done before. There were a couple of lightning bolts that hit so close, that I heard the thunder the instant I saw the flash. The ground shook and i was in the middle of the worse storm imaginable, and all hell was breaking loose. I decided right then and there to get the hell out of there and made a dash for the shelter. The road was like a river, and I was running up stream. I didn't need a flash light cause the whole sky was lit up from the lightning. I expected to get struck at any moment right in my tracks. I was just as scared then, as I was when that shark was fallowing me across the channel at the warf when I was surfing with Brian.

Anyway, to make a long story short. I survived. In the morning, I asked the camp manager what he thought about all that. He said that this was normal, that they get the stuff all the time, about three to four times a year. So, who are you going to believe? me, or some stranger you never met?

Okay, now........ We left Hayes Canyon Camp at 8:30 in the morning, and headed for a place that one of the campers told us about that served really geed breakfast. It was a little over a mile away, and it took for ever to get our food. But it was great, I was even tempted to lick the plate. By 10 o'clock, we were on our way. We knew we had a long day ahead of us, and wasn't quite sure about the weather. But we did want to make it to Carbondale for the rest day, so we could stay at a motel, and have our bikes serviced. It's been over 1200 miles with no service performed. As we rode along, we felt good. As good as one can feel with everything that went on last night that is. We encountered gentle low grade hills, and plenty of flat land for the first 8 or 10 miles. We saw a few of those turtles by the side of the road, and I even picked up one to check him out. We went through The Shawnee National forest where we stopped at the Grassy lake to check out some geese that had babies. The road through the forest was in pretty bad shape, but our mountain bikes ate that stuff up. There was absolutely no traffic. I made the ride that much more enjoyable.

We went through Goreville, a small town that had tame foxes and deer running around the neighborhood like it was a normal thing. If they did that on Molokai, they would get shot. We stopped at a park to fill our water bottles and use the rest room. There we met Barbara and Joan. Two sisters in their 70's traveling from Missouri to a place called Lake Egypt. I think they said they owned a cabin there or something. We got talking with them and found out that they, or at least one of them is from the town that Lisa is from. They also have been to Hawaii, but not Molokai. They said if they every go back, they'll visit Molokai.

By this time it was 2 o'clock, and we still had 30 miles to go. I figured we'd get to Carbondale about 7:30 or so, if we didn't stop too often. However, the hills were getting more and more frequent, and steeper. There was even a sign that read, "Hilly Area Ahead". This was just what I was looking for. More hills! Yes, bring it on....... Actually, I didn't really say that. But I knew that complaining about it wouldn't make them go away. So I hammered the big ones just so that I could get to the top and have it behind me. Just as I was starting to have fun, we reach Carbondale, where we are right now. We pulled into the Supper 8 Motel, only to have them tell us that they had no more rooms available. So we rode around and found a Motel 6 for $47.00 a night. But no Continental breakfast.

Tonight, it's Chinese food at The Hunan Resteraunt right next door. We thank all of you for wishing us the best. your prayers really did save me last night, and i know that you will continue praying for us. Good night, Ted.