Day 14 - July 5 - Salem IL to Mattoon IL - corn, trains and changeable weather

Weather: a little bit of everything.  75F (23C) and almost 100% humidity at 8am, with mist and fog conditions.  About 11am, it rained a little and the sun broke through the clouds/fog.  The wind picked up from the north and the humidity dropped a lot.  By 2pm it was 85F (30C) and the heat index was about 95F (35C).  The head wind for the last 3 hours was annoying but for the first time in a fortnight, it was actually a little cooling.

Distance: 80.7 miles (130kms)

Elevation Gain: 1335feet  (407 meters)

Average Moving Speed: 12.9mph (21kph) in 5hrs50mins

Calories expended: 4330

Shvitz Index:  8/10 in the morning but dropped after the wind picked up, and the humidity decreased - so overall 6/10

The forecast called for the possibility of rain around noon and so, it proved to be. A light rain shower presaged a change to a fresher day with the north wind picking up.  It was gusty at times and slowed me a lot.  The route was mostly through corn (maize fields) with no shade from the sun which appeared strongly around noon.  

The route to the NNE followed closely the line of the Illinois Central railroad and on the other side of my planned travel was the busy I-57.   I used two main highways, IL-37 and US-45.  Both had decent shoulders and both highways were quite deserted on Sunday morning, the day after the 4th July celebrations.

As is expected in the prairies of central Illinois, the day's riding was over mostly flat terrain, with a few climbs over highway and railroad overpasses.

The main reason for the relatively slow moving speed with the persistent NNW headwind which really picked up when the weak front went through.  I saw about 9 freight trains along the parallel tracks which used to be owned by the Illinois Central but now seems to be owned by CN (Canadian National)

The misty morning scene before the sun burned off the fog.

The double track of the former IC railroad.  I saw the Amtrak passenger train "City of New Orleans" flying north to Chicago and many slower freight trains.  (I was reminded of the Steve Goodman song "City of New Orleans" from 1971 and later popularized by Arlo Guthrie.   It includes the accurate lyrics

 

"All along the southbound odyssey

                                                    

                                                  The train pulls out at Kankakee

                                            Rolls along past houses, farms and fields"

                                   One of the many freight trains that passed me on its travels north.

Somewhat surprisingly, I did not see any Trump signs in the South and saw my first one south of Carbondale on Friday.  This is the second one near Effingham and accompanied by a protest against a local solar power project.

A wonderfully preserved gas station in Siegel, one of the half-dozen small towns along highway 45.  I don't think it sells gasoline now but it seems to be operating (though not on this Sunday).

This was the scene for most ot the day - an empty highway, high corn ('high as an elephant's eye by the 4th Juky and lots of tasseling.  

Tomorrow I plan to ride the 50 miles to Champaign-Urbana where I was on the University of Illinois faculty for 15 years in the 1970s and 1980s.  The planned route will pass through many small towns in which I ran 10k races in the 1980s in very similar conditions as today - temperatures in the 80sF and high humidity.