Day 50: Another great country ride to Ashkum, IL

Like yesterday, when I left this morning it was clear, about 50 degrees and I was riding into a stiff  headwind. Fortunately, headwinds don’t bother me anymore- they just make me go slower. And since I am not on a strict schedule, who cares? And the headwinds do help my conditioning, so that’s a positive. So today I rode for the first about 25 miles on farm roads in the middle of corn and soybean fields. Nice gently rolling hills and no traffic at all. Then my paved road turned into a dirt road for 7 miles- but it was a hard packed dirt road and about as smooth as the  paved road. Then it was just many, many miles of gently rolling farm roads and corn and soybeans and corn and soybeans and corn and soybeans and corn and soybeans and corn and soybeans and corn and soybeans… You get the picture. FYI, I’m not being negative, I’m just being descriptive. I had lunch at a gas station without any geezers and after another 29 short miles of gently rolling farm roads and corn and soybeans I arrived at my destination: the Ashkum Village Park. Ashkum is a town with a population of about 600 (and no hotels) and they allow, with prior permission from the mayor, camping in their park. The mayor, Paul, just brought me a cold Budweiser and opened up the bathroom for me- that’s practically like giving me the key to the city! I’m going to eat freeze dried dinner, dessert and breakfast because A) I won’t have to lug it around and B) I’m tired of Subway. I blew through Illinois in 3 days and will be in Indiana  tomorrow! Daily mileage: 74, trip miles: 2,646.

Today I rode on paved farmroads and dirt farmroads:

A pretty river (without a name sign) I rode over at some point:

Other than that, and I am not kidding, I saw soybeans:

And corn:

I am hopeful that Indiana will be a bit more scenic…