June 27th, Farmington, MO – Murfreesboro, IL
Day 32
We left Al’s Place, the local bike hostel, and we said goodbye to our new friend that we made while staying there. His name was Andy and he was from Virginia. He was traveling alone and was on the same path as us. I had a lot of respect for him because he was my age and was doing all of this trip alone. While I think I could do it, I much rather enjoy traveling with all the guys and experiencing the journey with someone.
We continued to ride through the steep and frequent hills of the Ozarks and enjoyed the scenery of Missouri. It got hotter as we traveled further East but this day we crossed into another state. We rode over a bridge that crossed the Mighty Mississippi river. It reminded me of one of my favorite books, Huckleberry Finn, and the town we crossed into was one to remember. Chester, IL was the home of Popeye the sailor man. He was created in the late 1800’s and the whole town was very proud of Popeye. We ate lunch at the local Subway and enjoyed the several Popeye statues and paintings throughout the town.
We rode the remaining 25 miles after lunch which was pretty flat as it went through the Mississippi River Flood Plain. While riding I remembered that my good friend and fraternity brother, Alex Fahnders, lived in southern Illinois. I gave him a call, which it was great to catch up, but he was not in town when we were. It was a real shame.
We arrived to our hotel, provided by the mother of Alex Kimura (thank you very much), and checked into our room. We watched a movie, Walking Tall, with one of my favorite actors in it (The Rock) and then enjoyed a wonderful Mexican Dinner (provided by Barry White thank you very much).
We had another great day of crossing into a new state and were excited as we neared our home state.
In His Adventure,
Chaz Vittitow
