Route 66

          Today was all about riding Route 66.  Great road, few motorized vehicles but a few quirks along the way.  Example given: first you are on the road, then it abruptly ends at a T in the road.  In my determined way, I saw cars passing just beyond a corn field and trudged myself and my bike through high grass adjourning the corn field to get to the road. "Oh %#*!, railroad tracks and a barbed wire fence confronted

me before I could access the road. For a moment or two my bike got hung up on between the tracks; my adrenaline kicked in and I bent the tracks apart with my bare hands.. Sure I did.  Next came the barb wire fence.  Is this really happening?  What am I, twenty years old?  I found a damaged portion of the fence where, after removing my panniers, I finessed my bike 

through the opening being careful not to snag me or the bike on the barb wire. And cars were passing by taking in this scene.  Alas, I finally found the route again, only to lose the road three more times.  Asking local folks for directions only made matters worse. Nice people in Illinois but give good directions is not their strong suit.

      One last rail to trail of twenty miles brought me to Springfield, home of Lincoln.  Warmershowers.com came through for me again. A member, who has toured 162,000 miles since the seventies, is legally blind, met me at Panera Bread.  Karl has one functional eye, glasses as thick a coke bottles and rides eleven miles to work everyday. In 2011, he rode the southern tier across the country.  I am impressed.  We took a serpentine route through Springfield where he showed  me the capital, the old state capital, Lincoln's home, his law office and his library.  Though I took a day off in St Louis, I am taking off another one to visit the Lincoln sites.  Karl though I should take the time,  I will be staying  at his abode  tonight.  His wife and he  took me to a great restaurant last night, another one is planned tonight and, of course, i squeezed in a visit to a local brewery on my ride to Karl's house yesterday,  

       I slept until eight this morning, luxury!