Anyway, at least we're on the flats now. After Bedford, IN we did a merciful forty-five miles to Linton, a relatively poor town that nevertheless rolled out the red carpet for us. The church where we stayed had a movie theater and a basketball court, and the head of the local Habitat for Humanity chapter even let all thirty of us into his home to use his pool. That night a newly renovated pizzeria provided the whole group with a real sit-down buffet style meal- it was so nice to have some snobby, non-chain 'za for a change. The ride to Effingham the next day was pretty uneventful, just lots of long, flat stretches past corn fields and dusty construction work along the sides of the highway. The church where we stayed that night was a last-minute alternative to our original church, which apparently had to cancel because of a bat infestation. As a result, we had to throw together a dinner of our own. Our trusty sinner crew cobbled together pasta with peanut sauce (pretty good actually) and a hodge-podge veggie dish. I supplemented this with a little Subway, and I was happy.
The next day (the fourth of July!) was another long hot one into Springfield, the site of build day number five. The church here was big, old and beautiful, and the church's awesome caretaker, Artie, served alone as our welcome committee and cook for that day and half. He also gave us the great recommendation for Boone's Saloon, the very Americana bar/restaurant where went that night for a little holiday festivity. Lots of people competed to find the trashiest USA gear they could at gas stations along the route- I think Josh, pictured below, probably won. During our meal a local approached us asking if we wanted our picture taken with a buffalo (results can be seen below), and afterwards we all watched fireworks over the state capital from the beer garden outside- a good night all around. Our actual build day on the fifth was pretty intense, given the heat. In the morning I worked at a Habitat ReStore, moving around sinks and throwing doors and windows into dumpsters in hundred plus heat- real tough guy stuff. In the afternoon we did some flooring in a house down the road, securing plywood with nail guns, and let me tell yah, I've been in saunas with air dryer than inside than inside that house. The nail guns were fun though, using one just makes you feel like you're showing the floor who's boss. Oh, and we also stopped by Lincoln's tomb and rubbed his nose for good luck.
The next day was to Pittsfield, IL, a surprisingly quick eighty miles through more flatlands. I mixed things up a little by hanging out with some people I don't usually ride with (here's looking at you, CJ, Ami, Shir, Ashley and Anne), which was really nice. We played "contact" and had an jolly good time all around. At lunch we ran into another cross country bike trip-America By Bike- except this one was professionally led and was going the opposite way, west to east. Very cool to talk to people going through a similar but different ordeal.
The hosts in Pittsfield were among the most welcoming and enthusiastic we've had. Our dinner room was decorated with Bike and Build stuff, they shuttled us to a public pool, and the pastor led an impromptu talent show wherein he played the guitar and a few of us played the piano or the drums or taught salsa dancing. On top of that, we got to stay outside the church at actual hotels or parishioners' homes. My little group stayed with the Haydens, a farming family who owned upwards of two thousand acres outside of town. When Mrs. Hayden said we were staying in a "cabin" on the ride over, I was prepared for a cozy log-based structure in the woods. Nope. We stayed in a full blown modern hunting lodge that the Haydens bought off some St. Louis big shot who hardly used it. There were multiple TVs, AC, an effing steam shower, panoramic views of the surrounding farmland down to the Illinois River, and BEDS. The best part, though, was the nighttime tour of the huge property that fourteen-year-old Cody (real nice kid) gave us in his awesome golf-cart-like ATV. He tore through creek beds and wooded trails that he knew like the back of his hand, and man, it was just good old-fashioned American fun. Afterwards we talked to the Haydens about their life as farmers- what the business was like, what the challenges were, the drought they're going through, what it's like growing up on a farm, etc. It was very different from everything I know, but really seemed like a beautiful kind of life.
The next day was only thirty-six miles, but it was eventful nonetheless. At mile thirty-three, everyone met up at a little park overlooking the Mississippi (the Mississippi already!) and waked for the police escort which would escort us over the bridge/interstate into Hannibal, MO. It was just indescribable riding over that iconic river as one big group- it was a great distillation of what this summer is all about. The town on the other side of the river was Hannibal, which, I found out the day before, was the boyhood home of Mark Twain. So of course we had to ride from our host into town to check out the Mark Twain museum, see where he grew up, etc. The cool thing was that the Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn stories that Twain wrote were based very much off of his childhood here. We even saw the fence that inspired the whitewashing story in Tom Sawyer (see below photos). My favorite Twain quote of the day:
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt."
Hannibal also has a pageant type thing in which kids compete to be chosen as the "Tom and Becky" of the town (Becky being Tom Sawyer's girlfriend in the book). We were lucky in that our church got Tom and Becky come over for dinner and do a little skit for us, in period dress and all. They were really into it themselves, which made the whole thing lots of fun.
Finally, today we rode seventy-five into Moberly, MO. Nothing too interesting, a nice ride with some rolling hills. We stopped for lunch at Mark Twain Lake and narrowly missed a thunderstorm riding into town. Oh, and this is actually really important: it finally cooled down! The high today was ninety-one, down about fifteen from the last week, and it made things so much more pleasant.
Ok, my parents are bugging me to call them, so that's all for now. Pictures below...
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