Goreville, IL to Chester, IL
Friendly horn taps: 3
Miles: 71
Total so far: 1,607
The humidity has kicked up. My shirt is stuck to my chest as I breathe steadily in and out, watching the threatening clouds, and staying low into the unnerving wind. Illinois is not supposed to be this windy, but the weather has been sketchy ever since we crossed the Ohio River. Lots of wind. Gnats and wind. Not two of my favorite things.
The clouds are darkening. We were pounded in camp last night with a thunderstorm that rolled over us at midnight. A tornado ripped through Joplin, Missouri, killing nearly 100. I cannot make out cloud formations. I don’t see any forms. No wall clouds, but I can’t see them in that sky anyway. We’ve pulled off for lightning already. The rain is hitting us now. It’s not cold, we’ll be fine as long as the lightning stays away.
What am I going to write about? I cannot think in this wind. The music in my head stops. I no longer look around, I just tuck and go.
There’s a guardrail. A guardrail in the rain.
I remember I once stopped a college student for speeding east of Rock Springs, Wyoming on Interstate 80. It was a summer afternoon and there were thunderstorms all around us. The lightning was popping off like popcorn. He began asking a number of technical questions about radar frequencies and modulations. After some time, I told him that I was happy to answer his questions, but he’d need to ask me these things in court, as the longer we were on the side of the road,the more dangerous it was to both of us, and I mentioned not only the traffic but the lightning.
He got out of his car and sat on the guardrail on the shoulder. It just happened to be one of those guardrails that runs about a mile long. I suggested he return to his car with the lightning all around us. He said this: “I’m a third year electrical engineering student, and I am very happy to be here on this guardrail because I am grounded, and that is the safest place to be during a lightning storm.”
I wrote his ticket out in the comfort and safety of my ungrounded car.
They don’t refund tuition. Sometimes that seems unfair.
Morning - after the storm
Little Grassy Lake
A port in the storm. The Eagles Club in Chester, IL hosts cyclists in their bunk house - no charge to Trans Am riders. What a perk!
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Tomorrow’s ride is dedicated to Joseph and Christopher Hughes
Joseph and Christoper Hughes killed near Lebanon, Tennessee in 1996. Joseph and Christopher are shown on the left side of this picture. Traci Hughes and her son Peter survived the collision.
In Memory of Warmer Summers 