Here we are in Illinois! There is essentially no difference between Illinois and Indiana. It's the first time I crossed a state line and it was so rural that we didn't have a "Welcome to Illinois" sign. There was no visible indication that had happened.
I love these little towns. I was waiting for us to get out far enough to find these places, where there is one bar/restaurant (which I'm sitting in right now), a small market, maaaaybe a post office, and a park we can stay in with some sort of weird shower situation. There's a few reasons I like these places: one, they care about cyclists. Two, there's not much to do so we tend to bond as a team; when there's only one restaurant, we're all going to eat there, you know? And three, you see/hear/witness some weird stuff. This town for example has this weird Communist market where they only have one of everything: one box of cereal, one can of soup, etc. Oh, and the local paper had a front page story: Local Resident Becomes An Eagle Scout. That's the news in Iroquois, IL.
Today was 94 miles; I did most of it in a pace line. We got an early start so we did most of the miles without too much wind, but the last 20 miles were really tough. I feel really good physically - finally! - mostly because I think I finally kicked the cold.
