Oakley’s Perspective-Week 10

Once we passed through the Ozarks we crossed the Mississippi and came into this town called Chester, Illinois. It happens to be were Popeye was “born”. The original creator was born there and the comic is based on the area and the local people. The town was filled of statues of all the characters.

That night we stayed this shack which was supposed to be the Bike Hostel for people biking through.We were grateful for the place to stay and the showers, but the spot was more like a little closet. We didn’t know that we were passing through Illinois until we actually got there, but other than the shack we stayed in, Illinois was really beautiful . We biked through lush tree filled forests and there were little hills that were not too steep.

A couple of days ago we got mixed up and kind of lost, we could not figure out were our campground was so we asked someone for directions and they sent us down this back road that went on forever. They had told us that it was “less than a mile down that road”. Five miles later we finally came across a little town which had a festival going on that night. We parked our bikes by the Ohio River and went out to the festival and ended up having a great time.We ate a dinner of all fried food.

The next day we crossed the Ohio river into Kentucky. At first I was dreading the shear fact of even biking through there because you know…the DOG thing. I didn’t realized Kentucky could be so beautiful That night we ended up staying in this nice church hostel. The people were really friendly and they had pool tables, air hockey and ping-pong tables plus showers, laundry and a kitchen. We found out the dreadful dogs are “friendly” and if you just stop your bike they will realize that you are a human not something to chase.