Springfield to Champaign, IL

Today was twenty degrees cooler than yesterday but with a nasty twenty mph headwind.  The roads had no shoulders and had a number of potholes to watch for.  The good news was the roads were very rural and lightly traveled.  Harry, Tony, Mike R, Willie, Dan, and I formed a pace-line exchanging the lead very mile to fight the wind.  My quad was still bothering me and it was going to take several more hours to finish the ride, so I called it a day and accepted a ride with 27 miles left to go.  Tomorrow is a rest day and I intend to do just that, rest.

4:17; 58 miles; 1,330'; 2,470 Calories.

There was a Dairy Queen on the route and we stopped for an informal SAG.  I bought a chocolate milkshake (surprise) and walked into the restaurant.  Wham!  Deja vu!  I looked around and said out loud, "Is this Clinton?"  Someone replied, "Yes, it is!"  In 2009, I stopped for a shake in this DQ and introduced myself to ten lovely ladies who had just returned from their weekly aquarobics class.  There were two ladies seated in the right spot so I introduced myself.  They were still there!  Of course, they said they used to be ten but now were two.  It was really nice to see them, again.

The pace line.

What you don't want to see when you are headed towards the left on a bicycle.

Play time!

Brit on a duck.

The lovely ladies in Clinton!

Lots of corn.

Mike rode strong despite the wind.  He was first into the hotel today.