I did a good job keeping the moisquetos out of the tent last night, I only saw one inside and I was not bitten up at all. The moisquetos must have given up and left, because they were not around today.
I packed the tent and decided to ride into Oakville for breakfast. It looked pretty close on the map, but after I got under way I noticed it was 25 miles to Oakville. I passed thru a town on the way called Toolesboro, but it was just a few houses and some neat Indian burial mounds.
This river road X61 is really desolute and deserted. I only see a car or truck every 5-10 minutes. I made it to Oakville about 10:00 am. Unfortunately the store there was out of business and the restaurant wasn't open. I didn't see anyone except some workers at a big food plant, and they didn't look very happy. It's Monday morning, I guess.
I ate some energy bars and cheese puffs for strength, and hit the road to Burlington, following Hwy 99. Traffic started picking up as I got close to town, and the people were driving a lot crazier than they had been in the country.
I got into Burlington at 11:30 and I rode around a bit looking for someplace to eat. The part of town where Hwy 99 meets Hwy 34 is a bit run down, with lots of empty buildings and closed down businesses. I found a small cafe, the Main St. Lunch, and had their delicious meatloaf special.
I crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois on Hwy 34, then turned right to Carmen, Lomax and Dallas City. This part of the ride was hot and depressing. These small Illinois towns were all run down and abandoned. And the corn fields were almost completely brown. It was getting hotter and hotter and I was getting more and more tired.
I finally got in to Nauvoo IL about 5:00 after 78 tough miles in the saddle. I checked into the Motel Nauvoo and went to a nice buffet lunch. After dinner I heard bagpipes down by the river, so I walked down and ended up watching a pageant they put on telling about the Mormon heritage of Nauvoo.
On the way back to my motel, the temperature was 82 degrees, at 10:00 pm . I may need to ship my camping gear back to Tallahassee !
