Marion, Ky to Goreville, IL – 77 Miles
We were up by 7 today and on the road just before 8. It was sunny, but brisk, and we knocked out the 12 miles to the Ferry to cross the Ohio River into Illinois pretty quickly.
Max called it a day just on the other side of the Ohio at Cave-In-Rock, IL. Dries and I pedaled on. The plan is to be in Carbondale, IL for a service project by noon tomorrow, so I wanted to get most of the way there today and just have a quick ride in the AM.
The ride was pretty uneventful. Weather was nice, clear, blue sky most of the day. Terrain was hilly, but not too crazy steep. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch about 40 miles in for the day. Can’t remember what the town or restaurant was called, but I took the opportunity to drink a beer with my lunch, since we were finally out of the dry counties of Kentucky. Kentucky was interesting. I have to say I think I got to know it better biking through it than I would have maybe any other way – both the people and the landscape.
Tonight we are camping at Fern Clyffe State Park near Goreville, IL. We got in at around 4 PM and spent an hour biking around the park looking for the primitive camping, so we wouldn’t have to pay $30 for an electric site. Once we finally found them and got settled neither of us wanted to make the trip out of the park and into town to grab some beer, although we were both really craving one. Made most of the food I had left and ate all of it.
The plan is to get up early enough to arrive in Carbondale by noon tomorrow. Dries is going to try to find a walk-in clinic there to have his knee looked at. It’s been bothering him since almost the beginning of the trip, and getting worse. He has to keep a 50 mile a day pace to get to Astoria, OR before his visa expires, so he is worried about having to take enough rest days to let it heal up.
This of course got us talking about healthcare. Especially because mine runs out at the end of May. Then I have to decide to either spend $450 a month to keep my current coverage or see if I can get something cheaper with Obamacare. It sounds like Holland’s healthcare is pretty tightly controlled by the government and they pay about $100 a month and it covers everything. When I told him that I may still have to pay something after visiting the doctor even with paying $450 a month he was astonished. I don’t know what the answer is with healthcare, but most of the time I think it seems pretty clear that we’re not doing it right when you look at how much it costs and how many hoops there are to jump through to see a doctor. It really is the ball and chain that keeps so many people shackled to their desk job that they could never think of leaving because of the what-ifs.
Anyways, I digress. It will be good to have short easy day tomorrow and I’m looking forward to the service project. Not even completely sure what I’ll be doing. Guess I’ll show up with an open mind and go with the flow!
