Day 30, Rest Day in Carbondale

Click the map to enlarge and you can see where we are.

Carbondale Cycles, one of three bike shops. All with in a stone throw of each other.

Phoenix Cycles, this was the one we went to with the recommendation of Andy.

Illinois Central, now a educational display, was once the back bone of coal and freight in years past.

We were able to climb up on the train and check it out. It's a lot bigger than it looks, I was impressed.

The pavilion where we saw the "Fish Skins".

Here they are playing one of their hits.

These flowers were in front of the Civic Center. We went in, in search of a rest room. We were in luck, they had two of um.

That's Doug with Lisa, the owner of Phoenix Cycles. Great bike shop, they cater mostly to TransAm cyclists and collage students.


Day 30, Carbondale. 2.16 miles.

Today is Wednesday, it is a rest day for Lisa and I. I hadn't gotten much sleep last night. The bed was way too soft, and I could not get comfortable no matter how i tried. Since Lisa and I share the same room, I can't just take off all my cloths like I would at home. So I suffered. Eventually I fell asleep, and everything turned out all right. At least we were in a comfortable and dry place for the night. This morning i got up late. 7:00AM. Usually I'm up at 4:30 or 5:00. I guess the sleepless night had a lot to do with it. My first order of business was to try to touch bases with friends and family. I wanted to take advantage of the wifi we have. Since the time difference is still 5 hours, everyone at home would still be in bed, and it would be unforgivable to call at such an obscene hour. So e-mail communication is the order of the day. I did catch up with Krystal though. It has been a while since I last talked to her. She has a new number, and I hadn't put it into the address book of my phone yet, and today she called. Good to know that she is doing well after her operation. She spent a few days in the hospital, and just returned to work a few days ago. I also talked to my mom. Only the second time since I've been gone. Every time I call, either she is out of the house, or gone somewhere. Great talking to her also, she sounds like shes doing very well. I also e-mailed Fern, and I got one back from her a little while ago. Pokahu, (My dog) is doing well. i miss him a lot. He is one good doggie. I also heard from Vanessa, she's stand up paddling now. Dave Dilberg is giving her lessons, and she loves it. I wish I could e-mail all of you guys individually, but time just won't allow it. even on our rest day, there is so much to do, that we just run out of time.

After breakfast at Sonics. They were the closest place from here, we returned to the Motel 6 to get our bikes and rode it down to the Phoenix Bike Shop a little over a mile away. Doug, the owner of the shop, greeted us as we entered. He knew we were TransAm riders by just looking at us. He said he gets a lot of them this time of the year. I told him I wanted a complete servicing, and gave him full discrepancy on what needed to be done. Lisa did the same. While we were waiting for the bikes to be readied. Lisa and I walked around the general area to see what was there. We walked over to an Internet cafe where I had me a mocha smoothly. I never knew such a thing existed, I wasn't disappointed. It hit the spot, and I was ready for more sight seeing. We walked a couple of blocks and found a book store. We were actually looking for a Library, but a book store would do. It was a huge place, and we spent over a half hour there. I had myself a soft serve cone from A really old Dairy Queen. I could kick myself, cause i didn't even take a picture of the place. The soft serve cone was the best I ever had, and filled me so much, i didn't even eat lunch. As we were walking around, we saw a bunch of people gathered at a pavilion. So we wandered over to see what was going on. There was a blue grass band playing country rock music, and a crowd had gathered for the free concert. At first, it sounded a little red neck to me. But as we listened for a while. It actually sounded pretty good. These guys were in sync, obviously they've been playing together for a while. The group's name was "The Fish Skins". I have a short video clip of their stuff.

Lisa then got a call from Andy. The Adventure Cycling guide. He was back in Carbondale because of bike problems, he and two of his guests, John and Kami were having mechanical problems, and since Carbondale is the only town with in miles, they came back. We actually met up with them last night as we pulled into town. They had their rest day yesterday, and was on their way to Chester, home of Popeye The Sailor, where we will be tomorrow afternoon for the night. We met with Andy folks at a little deli called Boobies. They were having lunch. We talked about the ride ahead, and found out that the terrain is fairly flat. I'm not holding my breath though, we heard that before.

At about 4 o'clock, we headed over to the bike shop just as Lisa's bike was being rolled off the repair stand. It looked good, they even cleaned it. my bike wasn't to be ready for another half hour, so we hung around talking with the people there. I had them install a touring handle bar bag since the one I was using was a piece of *&%#. I struggled with that thing long enough. The mechanic came out and went over the work done, I was very pleased. These guys are real pros, I went in the work area when they were working on my bike, and they had two mechanics working on it. They installed new cables, housing, chain, cleaned and lube everything, and even adjusted the brakes. My bill was $159.00, but being a bike mechanic myself, I wasn't complaining. Good work don't come cheap.

We rode back to the Motel 6, where I am right now updating my blog. We still need to do laundry, eat dinner, and hopefully, will have time to take in a movie. Thank you everyone for your continued support. It has been great so far. The weather for the next week sounds kind of sketchy, but we are just happy that it's been in our favor so far. Even the worst of it came when we were off of the highway.

Below, The Fish Skins in action. Aloha, Ted.