Rest Day

I woke up a few times in the nights to the sound of what I thought were dogs but was told by Nick (last night's host) in the morning were coyotes! This state park has brilliant showers and toilets (better than some hotels I have stayed in) and so I was able to clean up before hitting the road. Today is a rest day for me (apart from a 20 mile trip into Carbondale) and so I have taken my bike into the wonderful people at "Bike Surgeon" to give it the once over and to check out my gears which are still skipping a bit.

I have gone done got me a room at a big chain hotel up on the strip mall end of town which has a washing machine, dryer and swimming pool, so I am planning on swimming, washing and generally chilling for the rest of the day before striking out for Missouri tomorrow.


On yesterday's post I forgot to mention a nice bunch of guys I had lunch with yesterday just outside Eddyville. They were a team of tree surgeons that I had passed on the way up the beast of a hill I mentioned, and when they finished they joined me on the picnic table outside the service station / diner type place close to town. Having complained about how expensive their lives were in the US, they couldn't believe how much we pay in London for housing, petrol, cigarettes and beer and so whilst they would rather work in our cooler weather, they couldn't stomach the financial cost. Also, apparently up in Montana and the North West of the US, tree surgeons working on Giant Redwoods have to camp out in the trees overnight as they are so big!


They left me with the advice that if I find a tick on me then I shouldn't just kill it but I should remove it, bag it up and label where it was from so that a doctor would have a better idea about how to cure me of its nastiness. This scared me somewhat!


The top photo is of Crab Orchard Lake which I ended up next to today, having got a bit lost again on the way into Carbondale. Off to do nothing for the rest of the day :-)