Day Twenty-Eight - Headwind.

I woke up feeling lethargic this morning, partly becauase I'm just generally tired at the moment, and partly because I'd set myself up for a rest day today. I decided that where I was wasn't somewhere I wanted to spend my day off, which meant going 40 miles down the road to Chester, a town right on the border between Illinois and Missiouri, which also happens to be the home of Popeye the Sailor.

I had the choice of taking two routes today. They were both the same distance, but one was hilly and the other was flat. There was no real choice for me, and I went for the flat route. I set off at around 9:30, and after a few miles I found myself on vast open farmland, that had a strong wind coming from the West. As you can imagine, a fully loaded bike isn't the most streamlined of things, and I struggled to cycle faster than 12mph. what's more, the blowing of the wind past my ears began to give me an earache, but I managed to get back to the main road before it became too bad. The main road into Chester was a nightmare, I was being overtaken by coal trucks every couple of minutes, with drivers giving varying degrees of space.

I eventually arrived in Chester, where I met another westbound cyclist, who was cycling the trans-am route via St. Louis. I chatted to him for a bit, including asking him if he'd come past a hotel, to which he replied no. I then spent the next 45 minutes and 7 miles looking for said hotel, where I eventually found out that he had in fact gone past it. I booked in to a Best Western, where I THINK the person only charged me for one night, I'm not sure.

Since then, I've basically done not a lot other than handwash all my clothes. It wasn't until afterwards that I realised they have a laundry room here, so I may go and tumble dry all that tomorrow.

I went to eat at a Smorgasbord tonight, basically a buffet. I managed to get a plateful of salad though, which made a pleasant change.

I will reply to all emails and stuff tomorrow, I've got all day to do it. :)