Illinois is a rainy state. At least, it was while I was there. I arrived in Cave-in-Rock (by far the best town name yet) at the end of the day, and after a little back and forth found myself a motel room in a pretty run-down place just outside town. This because the lodging at the state park in town was all taken up, and the threat of rain made camping seem less than desirable. Thankfully, although the motel was straight out of the 70s, it was relatively clean and exceedingly cheap.
I left the next morning, just in time to catch a torrential downpour that lasted for the first 10 miles of my journey. I entered a lovely restaurant in Elizabethtown, Illinois soaked to the bone. They graciously served me breakfast anyway: enormous portions of french toast and oatmeal that could have fed about 10 people. After that I spent half an hour in a laundromat watching my clothes dry — which conveniently also gave me a chance to recover from breakfast.
After getting drenched again that afternoon, I stayed the night at the Heritage Inn in Carbondale. My room at the Heritage featured a kitchenette, and leopard print bedspread. For some reason it was incredibly comfortable and felt sort of like home. I cannot even begin to explain why that was the case. Carbondale was a nice town: big enough to have a downtown with things like soy lattes that have started to seem absurdly luxurious. It also had 3 bike stores on the same block, so I stayed in town for the morning and got a tune-up.
After Carbondale, I headed on to Chester (again enduring a torrential downpour en route,) which was mostly non-descript except that it is apparently the home of Popeye. Which seems strange, since it’s in Illinois — on the Mississippi, yes, but shouldn’t Popeye be living by the sea?
And that was Illinois. Short, and sweet (at least for the non-rainy parts.)
Posted by: sam