I'm Not a Loser or Good Day Not So Much Sunshine

It's not what it appears to be. Last night Thom thought of the Samsung Find My Phone App. He identified that his phone was along the road where he had lost it and hadn't moved. We went out this morning and found the phone fairly quickly. It was about 2 miles away from where we were looking yesterday. The screen protector had done it's job and the phone was fine. Better yet the credit card and drivers license were still with the phone.

So off we went. Very quickly we were on rural roads in the middle of farm fields and wind turbines. We think the installation of the turbines had resulted in the roads being paved. Twice on our planned route the paved roads turned to dirt or gravel but we quickly adjusted our route and made good progress. We were helped by winds actually assisting us and the somewhat cloudy skies which kept the temperature down. It was different riding on roads with absolutely no traffic.

Around Noon the clouds dissipated and it started to warm up. We stopped for lunch at a Pizza place in Monticello, IL. We order a large pizza for the two of us and finished it. I haven't been shy of eating on the trip. I'm not sure if I have gained or lost weight but I really want to avoid bonking or losing all my energy.

The rest at lunch and the food helped but it was in the 80's and I was starting to get hot after lunch. We made it though Champaign and Urbana without any issues. On the east side of Urbana we took a break under a tree in a parking lot. While that helped, I said to Thom that we would need to evaluate our plans in another 10 miles. That would have been a total of 70 miles for the day.

We then ended up on a crushed stone path that for some reason energized me. We were riding through some rural communities where it seemed like every third or fourth house was having a party. We were a little insulted we weren't invited. At about 90 miles we called Claudia and arranged to meet about 15 miles from our hotel and a little over 10 more miles of riding for Thom and me. While yes we had a favorable wind and that helped but for some reason we were really flying at the end. Our last 10 miles were the fastest  10 miles for the day. 

It was a good day with not much drama. We wish we had more of these days.

Here is the ride on Strava:

PROGRESS

We are back to averaging over 80 miles per day. We have also ridden 11 days in a row. We know we need to take some down time but are having a difficult time scheduling it. Here's the table:

More importantly here is a map of what we have accomplished. 

I am particularly impressed that our maximum speed was 346.1 MPH. It must have been when I wasn't looking at my bike computer because I certainly would have remembered that.

If you want to study the map and data in detail here is a link.

TOMORROW

Our goal is to make it to Indiana.