Wednesday, day 15

I'm in the Bike Surgeon in Carbondale, Illinois getting the thing looked at. It's ok but whilst I'm near a bike shop, thought I'd get it checked out.
Well, unsurprisingly, I'm not a card-carrying Baptist just yet. Bob and Violet were very nice though and only gave me a bit of faith stuff - how significant a thing it is in their lives, why and so on. Then we got onto to healthcare and other relatively non-contravertial topics. I left theirs at 715 am and got to the very cheap motel at 830 last night, having cycled 130 miles. By that stage i wasn't that tired, just slightly hysterical. I ended up on highway 13, which is kind of like a bigger A6, with a hard shoulder, which was the bit I cycled on. So at about 3pm it started raining, when i had about 40 miles to go. After about 30 miles I finally resorted to listening to my music, which i hadn't done at all till this point. This road was boring though...long, straight, nothing of interest at all. So whilst negotiating a town called Marion and it's associated highways, intersections, lane changes etc, in the rain, I got a puncture. When i saw the sate of the tire I was only surprised it wasn't sooner - I was nearly through to the inner tube. But was I pissed off - no!!! It must have been the dance music, the very hefty caffeine drink I'd had 10 minutes before and the rain....took me back to walking home from clubbing in the rain. Far from wanting to murder anyone, I was actually in a good mood. I obviously was a bit insane though as whilst pumping the tire up, I had Benny Benassi 'Satisfaction' on in my headphones (look it up on YouTube, it's worth it to get the complete picture) and I was acting out the video whilst doing the pump action, at the side of the road, full lycra, in the rain. I almost had to stop as I was laughing too much. Mmmm...possibly was loosing it just a bit.
Was going to camp at Crab Apple Orchard Wildlife Refuge but as i was totally soaked I went for the cheapo motel option, which was so the best choice. I haven't dried anything out, I'm still wearing wet gear, but at least I didn't spend half the night trying not to touch the sides of the tent and letting the rain in. It was a shame the weather was so crap as the wildlife place looke dfantastic as I cycled through it. A massive lake, all wild vegetation, un-tamed it appeared, looked great.
It appears I can't send pics at the moment - I sent one last night and it's not on here, so who knows where it is. Hopefully will end up at a fire station in Farmington, Missouri tonight, 80 miles off. We'll see how the legs hold up.