Goreville to Chester

"Last night was COLD!"  Those were the first words out of Tim's mouth tonight on the phone. Tim was really glad he packed a blanket and had a long sleeve shirt to sleep in; other wise he might have had a long night.  ;)  Tim recently purchased a sleeping pad for when he goes camping/backpacking and decided to take it along with him on this trip.  He was glad he took it because it was much better than sleeping on the hard/cold ground. 

The boys biked from the lake, where they camped, to Carbondale which included a lot of in town riding...which isn't their favorite.  All of a sudden they notice a guy and he threw something at Dustin.  Dustin replied, "YOU MISSED!"  Apparently the guy chased them down while they were looking at their directions and threw something else.  All Tim could say was that the guy was really weird.

They left Carbondale and went through Murphysboro.  This section of their ride (about 20 miles) was really flat so they pushed hard and averaged 20 miles per hour.  At one point they must have been going down hill and noticed that Brandon wasn't with them.  One of the guys went back to look for him and found him messing with his bike.  The other 2 ended up backtracking and when they found Brandon his bike was upside down with the back wheel off.  Brandon's bike has saddle bags on the sides to carry his stuff.  One of the bags had gotten stuck in a rear spoke, which locked up his tire and sent him skidding down the road.  The skidding caused his tire to rip/shred!  Luckily Brandon had another tire and tube.  The new tire was a little smaller than the original so they switched it with the front tire.  Problem solved!  Way to go guys!

The ride ended with 3 miles that were HARD and up long steep hills.  They arrived in Chester around 3:30 and decided to stay at the Best Western.  (You'll have to ask Kenny why they ended up there)  The owner of the hotel was also the owner of a buffet restaurant and gave them all 10% off coupons to use.  The guys didn't really want to ride their bikes to go eat so the owner offered to drive them there.  Upon arrival of the restaurant they realized they didn't have their coupons.  I think they explained the situation and everything was taken care of.  They actually ended up with free crab legs for dinner when everything was said and done.

Kenny, I found these for you.

Total miles today- 48

Tomorrow they will leave Chester and finish in Farmington, MO!