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Tuesday 6th July 2004

alaskan cyclists heading southDevil's Kitchen Lake Campground to HI3 Motel, Chester. Initially an easy and pleasant ride into Carbondale to get bits for the bikes (bits for brakes, my cycle computer, spare tyres - Carbondale is an oasis of biking after the desert that was Kentucky - hundreds of miles with no bike shop). Got heaps of stuff, but they still didn't have the bit for my bike computer, so I was rash and bought another one! If I get the part back in England, I'll have two! In Carbondale we met Mark and Wanda, and Jason, and two Alaskans (see photo) heading towards Florida for a youth conference and holiday. They were riding a tandem from about 40 years ago. One brake had ceased to work, so they described their braking technique. It involved putting all four feet down at the same time as using their remaining brake. A sort of centipede style of slowing down. Their bottom bracket was being mended in one of the shops. They were hurtling along, partly thanks to following winds. They recommended camping for free at Wal-Marts. They'd only been moved on once, unfortunately it was in the dead of night. The ride from Carbondale to Murphysboro was brisk - we took the big road, not the transAm trail, because of running late and a big deviation to get to the bike shop. Then in Murphysboro there was a huge thunderstorm - so we sheltered for ages (and ate a heap of food), then we couldn't find the route, then we found a route and ploughed along it until there was another thunderstorm (took shelter on the porch of a house for sale). By now we were really late! More rain but we cycled on, then two flat tyres on my back wheel. Hmmm, would we reach anywhere before it gets dark! My puncture repair outfit glue doesn't work in humid weather, so I was wondering about walking the last 6 miles! Then Guy's puncture repair kit came to the rescue - it does work in humid weather! Finally reached Chester (a small place compared with Chester, England) and found the cheapest motel possible - and collapsed under the weight of a major shop at the very nice store across the way. A real bottle of wine! Kentucky had mostly been 'dry' so a bottle of Australian Merlot is wonderful!

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