Henry, IL to Orion, IL
Day: 73.61 miles, Trip: 1675.38 miles
Up early as usual and the big storm that was promised never came. It stayed south of where we were camped. We waited until 7 am to hit Rio Vista Grill for breakfast. It was a great stop, good food and a run by a friendly family.
We hit the road and again as usual I struggled the first 10-12 miles. Once I warmed up I was able to cover the distance much quicker. By mile 18, I was actually feeling really good. The first rest stop was in Bradford, IL and there we met Jim who was celebrating his 76th birthday and decided to have breakfast with us and even treated. Breakfast was at JDs bar and grill which only served breakfast on Sundays. We lucked out.
I would be posting more pictures, but you can only get so excited by seeing corn and soy bean fields every day. There are some wind turbines mixed in but I see those at home in Iowa too. We got a good side of the road stop with watermelon. On a hot, humid day like this it really tasted delicious. From there I pretty much lost my energy. I plugged on and about 1.5 miles from town (Orion, IL) it started raining. The rain didn't feel bad though since it has been hot. I could have done without the wind.
Tonight we are camping in the town park of Orion, IL (pop 1850). The United Methodist Church is providing us with dinner and also arranged for us to get showers at the local middle school. Since it is storming outside the pastor of the church opened up the church's basement for us to sleep. We are grateful for not only the food, but for the dry accommodations. Some of us even found some comfy couches to sleep on. Andy put on a movie and our room filled up to watch a movie before bed.
