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Illinois


The Illinois end of the bridge. Welcome to Illinois - the land of signs.	I'm not sure that beginning with a choice between a mental ... Chester calls itself the "Home of Popeye" because it was the birthplace of Elzie Segar, wh... There are still a few adverts around relating to the eclipse. I've avoided taking many pictures of roadkill on this trip, partly because a lot of the animals have... I won't be near the Mississippi for long so here are a few pictures of it. The Mississippi. A gauge showing the clearance below the bridge. A barge. This building calls itself a mill but I don't know whether it mills flour or something else. Apart f... Passing through a flood defence. Worship in the Bottoms. That mound doesn't look natural. I haven't seen any petrol stations all day so I stopped for some drinks at this dark, funny-smelling... Today, I will be in the boundary region between open flat land and hills. The road through Carbondale has giant paw prints painted on it. I don't know what they mean. Carbondale. When I swapped the front and back tyres last night, it was with the intent of riding for three more ... I'm waiting in the bike shop now while the bike has its tyres changed and I've just seen a train com... The presumed owner of the bike shop mentioned that Carbondale is the city which is virtually on the ... I will be on this highway for most of the afternoon. It was a mistake to use this cycle path though ... The flag of Illinois breaks all the same rules of good flag design as most other states, plus it mak... A lake. What's all this junk? Okay. A place that sells flags, with some people sweeping the roof. More flags, this time in a cemetery. Somebody looking at my pictures menioned recently how nice it was that most of the towns which I hav... There's a slight headwind but the land is flat, the road surface is smooth and there's plenty of spa... I'm delighted to see that Illinois cities still make ... I think that place is just a house but it has a model wind pump and three crosses in its garden. The kind of things that grow around here. Harrisburg. Harrisburg. Harrisburg. That looks like a pleasant place to eat but my hotel is a little way out of town so I won't want to ... A tractor shop... ... which also sells baby chicks. Judging by the size of the bathroom and the size of the buttons on that telephone, I think I might h... It's not accessible through this door. I haven't broken the toilet but I would if I tried to flush it using the handle. I can hear the plas... Also, this does nothing... ... and there's nothing to clamp this to the vertical pole so the only place you can have it is at t... The hotel is next to a Ponderosa Steakhouse. I remember them from my first trip to America, 29 years... I can see four more restaurants from here which claim to be open, although the car park looks pretty... Contrary to appearances, this Chinese restaurant is closed. I went in and the waitress showed me to ... But it's August. This ridiculous sandwich s called a Meat Mountain. I was in two minds about whether to have one but ... I've got another complaint about this bathroom. The shower curtain rail droops so the curtain slowly... Today, I'm heading to Madisonville in Kentucky. The weather forecast says that there will be some ra... I didn't do that. A school. It looks like that ridge has been built up by dumper trucks. A full truck heading towards the ridge and an empty one heading away. They seem to be moving rock from over there to the ridge. The minor road which I had been following turned into a very rough stone road. The only way I could ... The Shawneetown bridge, which will take me across the Ohio river, the last of the three big rivers. ... The back part of my saddle has collapsed. Remarkably, it happened between where I was when I took th...