Chester, Illinois, to Carbondale, Illinois -- 49 miles

We woke at 5:15 am and began biking at 6:00 am. We had a choice of 2 different routes – the hilly main route and the flatter “Mississippi Levee Alternate.” We decided to take the alternate route. As we left town, Lorraine was wobbling on her bike - the problem was low tire pressure, so we stopped for Lenny to inflate her tires. We missed one of the turns because of road construction, and missed the part of the trail, which ran beside the river. When we turned off from the highway, we were riding on back roads, past cornfields and little houses on the prairie.

We reached Carbondale by 11:30 am, and rode through the campus of Southern Illinois University, trying to find our way to Main Street. We stopped at Carbondale Bikes to get another cyclo-computer and more Halt dog repellent spray. We checked into the Uptown Motel and turned on the air-conditioning! Lorraine surfed the Internet at the library while Lenny walked about a mile to go to the post office. We had an early dinner at Murphy’s Bar & Grill. Lorraine had great tortilla soup, Lenny had salad, and we both had burgers and homemade cheesecake with strawberries for dessert.