ANNA TO CHESTER

May 13, Wednesday
56 miles

Just call him Rusty "King of the Flat Roads" Henrichsen! He was setting the pace and we were cruising down the road at 17 mph! Nice flat roads, tail winds for the first 35 miles. We pulled up to a nice grassy front yard (they're about an acre in this area) and made our PB&J and got to know our host, Dave Mead, when he walked down to get his mail. We talked about the storm that had gone thru there last weekend and all the trees that were down along the way on our ride. I tried to get pictures that would capture the condition but it's hard to show the story. Dave said they just got power back today after being out since Friday. As I mentioned in yesterdays post there were a great number of people in that situation.
After lunch our tail wind turned into cross winds which aren't as bad as head winds but can be difficult to keep control of the bike.
The hills along HWY 3 the last ten miles into Chester made a totally different ride! Two lane highway with no shoulder and trucks! TRUCKS! TRUCKS!!!! Coming at us from both directions. Is it Murphy's Law that when we're riding on a turn, up hill, with no shoulder and trucks coming in both directions that we all come together at that point as they pass us and each other?? Or is that the Bermuda Triangle! Gad Zooks!
The forecast was for thunder storms about 4:00pm . We hit Chester City limits at 4:00 and the rain and thunder started. We took refuge for a few minutes in the only convenient place close by - a dental office and I "talked shop". It was another four miles before we got to our motel and we were pretty wet! Kind of like what the cat dragged in!
After checking in we did a crazy thing. We unloaded our bikes and rode out up another hill about 1/2 mile away to McDonalds for a grilled chicken salad and a Big & Tasty with "pickle, tomato, onion only."
When riding in to town we past the Popeye Museum! Couldn't get Rusty to stop! He was heading for the barn! Chester Il is the birthplace of the originator of Popeye!