Shaun Rides His Bike

I was prepared for today’s wind. It wasn’t quite a headwind, and it wasn’t quite a crosswind, but it was very strong at times. When I was forced to ride directly into it, I could barely maintain 6 MPH. But it was so warm that I stopped caring. I’ve decided I am fine with a headwind, and I am fine with cold weather, but a cold headwind is just a little too… unpleasant.

My first stop of the day was Atlanta, Illinois. There was a sign outside town advertising fresh pie, and I was really excited. But when I got there, the cafe was closed… permanently. So sad!

The town was super quiet on a Sunday morning, like a Twilight Zone episode. I stopped to take a picture in front of the famous hot-dog wielding Paul Bunyon (sic), and after I started around the corner to look at the famous clock tower, I heard a voice in the quiet town. I couldn’t see anyone, so I kept going. But then a young woman came around the corner, trying to get my attention.

She’d noticed a wire dangling from my bike, and was concerned it would get tangled. This is a very valid concern! The USB wire had come out of my solar panel, and could probably get stuck in my wheel, causing all sorts of problems. I was really grateful.

But then Heather and I spent the next half hour talking. She’s from Springfield (where I am tonight!), and she and her husband now live in Atlanta, in a train car on raw land. She thought I was adventurous, but I think SHE is the adventurous one!

In July, 2000, when we visited Atlanta, we talked to someone we met in town. I didn’t record her name, but she told us her father used to be the clock winder, and that the clock needs to be wound every 8 days. Heather told me it is still manually wound, and I am glad.

My next stop was in Lincoln, Illinois. I saw the courthouse on a little hill, and a sign indicating Abraham Lincoln tried cases there, so I snapped a photo. I was so excited! Later, I read that this is a REPRODUCTION of the original courthouse, and the original was snatched up by Henry Ford and whisked away to Dearborn, Michigan. So I felt slightly bamboozled, but I am sure the sign I scanned had that information on it, and I was just too excited to read it!

I stopped in Elkhart, Illinois looking for a post office. I saw one on the main street, and rode my bicycle up to the door, since I didn’t see a mailbox outside, to see if it was locked. It wasn’t, so I rolled backwards to find a place to lean my bike while I went in. Then I noticed it wasn’t a post office at all! It was a bank!

Just then, a young woman was walking by, and I suddenly felt really guilty, so I mumbled something like, “Um, that’s not a post office!” I think I looked really furtive, because a woman across the street yelled, “Can I help you?”

I said I was looking for a post office, and she pointed at a newer brick building a block away. I rolled up to the mailbox and very ostentatiously took out my postcards and put them in, so she would know I wasn’t trying to rob the bank on Sunday morning!

I saw a little cafe on the main street, so, still sad about the pie I was denied in Atlanta, I leaned my bike against the wall, and started to walk in. A couple was walking from their car. I held the door for them. The outer door had a wonderful creak that I’ve only ever heard in old scary movies, and I commented on it. The woman asked me if I’d like to join them for lunch, and, with almost no hesitation, I agreed.

Alan and Ruby, both 83, grew up in the area, and the farm she grew up on is still in her family. Alan and Ruby have known each other since they were kids, but were married in 2006, after they became reacquainted at their 45th high school reunion.

Ruby had a lot of stories about driving Route 66 between this area and St. Louis, Missouri, when she was training as a nurse in the early 1960s. They also had a lot of stories about their travels to meet long-lost relatives, and Ruby’s adventures in the Grand Canyon, on mules and rafts.

I really loved having lunch with them, and I was really moved when Alan snatched the check away and insisted on buying lunch.