day 54

today we woke up and started getting our things together to leave the comforts of logan's place; it was great to hangout with him and take a break from biking. today we were going to take a shortcut from carbondale, illinois to sebree, kentucky which would be a 100 mile ride along the highway which was mainly flat. it was a nice ride where we rode past a lake reserve then just through some cities as we got closer to the ohio river. it was a nice day out and the riding was good. we were cruising! we finally made it to the ohio river bridge where there wasn't much traffic so we stopped and enjoyed the view. huge barges carrying coal were passing right underneath us and evan had to get his classic feet over bridge shot. it is pretty crazy how massive these rivers are. once into kentucky one would normally expect to see a welcome to kentucky sign, but there was not one. sad i know but hopefully when we leave kentucky into virginia we can make up for it. the roads changed from illinois to kentucky having no shoulder and a conveniently placed rumble strips on the side of the road. it started to get more rolling hills and just all agriculture. we stopped in a small town and got a blizzard cause we needed a boost before rolling into sebree. we got into sebree at 8pm and found the first baptist church where they take in bikers. as we pulled in the driveway, the pastor came out and told us to park our bikes and hurry inside for dinner. inside was lu, su, adam (riding east to west), and violet (pastor bob's wife) and a full table of fresh corn, chicken, cornbread, vegetables, and ice cream. it was so awesome and the company was great too. we all sat around talking for a couple hours until we headed to the youth room where they let us sleep. they have mattresses, a shower, full kitchen, and a biker's room that has maps and a give/take section. we were going to go downtown to see the festival that was going on but there was only an hour or so left so we decided to just relax inside and chat with lu, su, and adam some more. as we were looking at the maps, i felt something on my leg and there was a tick trying to burrow into me, so i gently removed him and then found another one under my sock! i removed the other one as well and checked the rest of my body, luckily there weren't any more. we put them in a tissue and went outside to burn them. now we have to be ever mindful of ticks now. soon after we all hit the tired wall and headed to bed.