The ride from Geode to Fairfield was difficult only because it was gravel for several miles; I chose a more level route than I could have, but still it was gravel and took a lot out of me.

I arrived in Fairfield sufficiently late in the afternoon that I headed straight for the ecovillage, even though I could tell I wanted to see more of town.  On the way out of town, I passed a housing development of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda homes featuring energy-efficient windows and lighting, passive solar heating and cooling, and low VOC paint.

[posted to the Wheeled Migration Yahoo Group on September 29, 2004]

Hi, folks! I'm writing from the shore of the Mississippi River, having just crossed back to the west side at Burlington, Iowa. It's noticably wider than it was in Minneapolis seven weeks ago! I'm looking forward to my next crossing in Louisiana... and to my ride down the River Road this coming week.

It got cold last night -- so cold that ice formed on the autoharp case.  I woke up around 4 and couldn't get back to sleep because I couldn't get warm, and I was wearing 3 layers.

I put the tent away still damp, thinking I'd have time to dry it out in Burlington.  I did get to Burlington around lunchtime, but after that plans went awry.

When I got up in the middle of the night, the moon was still high in the sky, lighting the landscape clearly, and the tent and grass were covered with dew.  But then a front came through about 3 AM (I'm guessing), and by dawn the sky was overcast and there was no dew anywhere.  So I packed up and left in no time.

I took my time getting up this morning, knowing that the bike shop probably wouldn't open until 9.  Mark supplied my first taste of pawpaws to supplement breakfast; they're something like a cross between a papaya and a banana.

[posted to the Wheeled Migration Yahoo Group on September 26, 2004]

Hi, folks! I'm writing from Peoria, which is to say midway across Illinois. The fact that I was in the middle of Indiana just four days ago kind of boggles my mind!

I got up this morning an hour before dawn and hit the road before the sun had risen, with four hours to travel 25 miles to church.  I just barely made it in time, but the service was worth the trouble.  Leela's classmate Roger Mohr gave an excellent service integrating science and spirituality.  The congregation was as impressed as I was.  They were very welcoming to me and made me think Peoria must be a very friendly place -- dunno if that's true!

I didn't get quite as far as I had hoped today due to a headwind... the land I crossed is totally flat and getting flatter as the crops are harvested, so there's nothing to stop the wind.  But even so I covered most of three pages of the map, headed due west.  I plan to get up early tomorrow morning to ride the rest of the way into Peoria for church -- turns out the guy giving the service is one of Leela's cohort, and he's studied ecovillages, and I offered to take him to lunch to talk about them.

total distance: 60.46 mi

The remarkable thing about today was that I rode literally all day long.  I was on the road by 9 (after waiting for my tent to dry) and didn't get to my campsite until after sunset.  And what a sunset!  Wow!

The campground is right next to the interstate.  The owners wanted me to camp about 20 feet from the highway, but I snagged a site on the far side of the lake instead, which still puts me closer than the truck stop did last week.

total distance: 61.1 mi

I was really tired starting out this morning but didn't feel like riding back into town for coffee, so I just headed northwest on quiet roads.  It was one of those days (like yesterday) when time seems to pass more slowly than usual, so although it felt like about 4:00 when I got to Attica, it was only about 1:00.