By: Kate Pearce
There’s almost nothing better than waking up in the morning after a long night’s sleep and smelling freshly cooked pancakes. That was how we awoke this morning thanks to Sherie’s delicious breakfast efforts! To try to avoid the morning rain and to rest up, we slept in until past 8.
I certainly won’t forget her amazing whole wheat pancakes, fruit salad, and yogurt and granola. I may or may not have had three rounds of breakfast... 5 pancakes down and I was ready to hit the road! Thanks again to the McCormick family for being such amazing hosts!
We hit the road with a “short” 48 mile day ahead of us with thunderstorms in the forecast. We made it about 30 miles out to our lunch spot. The ride was pretty chill since it was flatter and cooler than it had been. Just as we walked inside where we’d be stopping for our lunch break, the rain began. It rained hard. Scary lightning lit up the sky ahead.
Checking the radar, I saw that a second front was coming in but wouldn’t arrive for about 30-40 minutes. Eager to push on toward finishing our short day, I suggested that we ride to Carbondale, only about 8 miles away. That way we could make some progress and find a place to wait out the second rain front.
We biked quickly into a sky ahead full of ominous dark clouds. Good thing we were averaging about 20mph in the flats because we beat the rain by about 1 minute. Spotting a Barnes & Noble beside the road, I pointed and we excitedly pulled over. Basically everyone on the Spokes team this year really likes to read, and we’d all been hoping to find a bookstore to pick up some new books. Perfect timing.
I certainly got lost in space and time as I wandered that expansive bookstore. Pulling out a book from the shelf, I’d tell myself I’d only read the first page to see what it was like and next thing I’d know I was on page 10. It was painful to force myself to keep circulating, but I knew there was so much more to see! Wandering around, I spotted my teammates doing the same thing. We were all practically giddy being surrounded by so many great books. I’m pretty sure every one of us bought at least one new thing to read. By the end of the day, I was 80 pages in and glad I’d made the “splurge” on a new book.
With the rain gone, we figured we should probably finish the ride. Ride now, read later. It was a pretty easy cruise the rest of the way, and we were met by a super adorable herd of dogs at our host’s house in Murphysboro, IL.
The four dogs warrant some description because they were so cute. Herbie was calm and self-assured, and he hopped up on the couch beside me and seemed to be reading along with me. The picture below shows him telling us a story at dinner. Well, not really... but it sure looks like it!
The other dogs included Jimbo, Chipper, and Sweetie. They were all pretty great, but Jimbo was particularly endearing. With three legs and 2 teeth, he wasn’t quite the ordinary pup, but he sure was affectionate and sweet.
Our hosts Joe and Sarah cooked some delicious grits and shrimp for dinner. Some of us had never or rarely ever tried grits (while some proud Texans like Delia used to eat them every day). Regardless, every one of us loved the meal!
Therefore, we weren’t even that surprised when our host, Joe, later revealed that he’d won a cooking show on Food Network! Beating out two professional chefs, the “con” Joe won an episode of “Cooks vs Cons.” Who knew we’d practically be staying with a celebrity?!
Joe and Sarah were so nice, and we really enjoyed staying in their beautiful home with their adorable pack of dogs and delicious food. Plus, their basement was pretty fun. Delia certainly had some energy left after the ride as she tried to beat her high score in a basketball arcade game.
Meanwhile, Alex might have gotten a bit too into his new Mark Twain book as he read until 2am. Another day full of twists and turns- rain and bookstores, lightning and grits. It was a fun one.
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