Corn field showing how close the corn is planted.
Corn field showing how close the corn is planted.
Jack Wilson truing my wheel in his shop, Wilson's Cycles, in Bloomington, Illinois.
Last Modified on 9/24/97 at 5:08:57
Day's Narrative: We are laying over here in Pontiac, IL tonight, heading out for Rantoul, IL tomorrow. Approximate schedule. We are thinking about laying over an extra day in Vincennes, which puts us into Munfordville, Kentucky on September 2. The new schedule avoids riding on Labor Day. Aug. 27, Wednesday --Rantoul, Illinos. Up to today, for the 28 riding days, I have averaged 83.5 miles (134 km) per day. This is more than I had expected. I guess it's been almost 40 years since I've seriously looked at a corn field. However, riding a bicycle through Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois is difficult not to look at one seriously. In the photo above I've tried to get enough detail so you can see how closely the corn is planted. Here you are looking perpendicular to the rows at the corn. If you can see it, you will notice that the individual plants are maybe 5 to 6 inches (about 13 - 15 cm) apart. I remember corn fields when I was young and the plants were about 12 inches (30 cm) apart. This means that the yield per acre since the 1950's must have at least doubled, possibly tripled, from this alone. I noticed yesterday that my rear wheel was a little out of true. As I looked closer today I discovered some of the spokes felt loose. This had to be fixed or the flexing of the wheel would cause the spokes to break. Connie and I put the bike on the truck and drove to Normal, IL, 36 miles (58 km) south to see if we could find a bike shop where we could get this fixed. We found Wilson's Cycles in Bloomington where Jack Wilson took time to fix my wheel (see photo) even though he was very busy. Jack started his shop in Bloomington in 1969. He likes to ride, but says he's so busy keeping his customers riding he doesn't have much time. He would really like to take off for a month and take a long bicycle trip. Neville and I were bicycling along in Montana at 25 mph (40 km/h) on smooth new pavement, with a 35 mile (55 km/h) tailwind and no traffic. Ahead of me Neville takes both hands off the handlebars, sits up straight with arms outstretched and yells, "Ray, it doesn't get any better than this!" I was bicycling alone in Montana when a pickup truck had to slow down behind me because of the narrow road. After he passed, I attempted to thank him by waving so he could see it in his rear view mirror. He saw it and replied with the finger. Oh well. [Connie] Thoughts of the day while perusing the map. Rome, Washington, Metamora, Roanoke, Wyoming, Sheffield, Peru, El Paso, Ottawa, Marseilles, Kingman, Manhattan. It could come from the old song, "I've Been Everywhere," but you don't have to leave this area of Illinois to go to all these places. Place names are peculiar, some perhaps named by homesick people transplanted from the named places. Names like Farmington are self explanatory. Chillicothe, Pontiac, Kickapoo, Chicago, and Illinois, for that matter, are all Indian names. © Ray & Connie Poore, 1997
Aug. 28, Thursday --Charleston, Illinos.
Aug. 29, Friday --Vincennes, Indiana.
Aug. 30, Saturday -- layover in Vincennes.
Aug. 31, Sunday -- Owensboro, Kentucky.
Sep. 1, Labor Day Monday -- layover in Owensboro.
Sep. 2, Tuesday -- arrive Munfordville, Kentucky.
Sep. 3-7, layover in Munfordville, Kentucky.
Sep. 8, Monday -- leave for North Carolina.
Memorable Moments So FarReturn