Day 20 – Friday 13th May 2011 – Quincy IL – Springfield IL

Today started off a little differently from usual. While the hotel offered breakfast at 6am, the official breakfast was en-route after 14.4 miles. Some people availed themselves of the standard hotel fare before we loaded luggage and left the hotel at 6:48am. The weather was again dull and with little wind but it was cooler than the last few mornings at just 16°C.

Riding out of town, the road sloped upwards and there were a number of intersections to cross. However, with little wind, we made good time and arrived at the restaurant for breakfast in the town of Liberty, called Mike’s Place, just after 7:30am. The breakfast offered was a choice of numbers 1 to 8 off the menu. The sole waitress struggled to get around the cyclists tables, let alone the others, and our order was not taken for about 30 minutes. It then took about another 30 minutes or so to get our food. Some people’s orders came with a separate plate of three large pancakes. I had hash browns, ham and eggs. Patrick thought he needed some dessert to finish off with.

We were back on the road again just before 9am with the first sag at just 41 miles. As no one needed food so soon after breakfast, this was a brief stop and rode on. Lunch was at 66.5 miles at a service station in the town of Jacksonville. The sky had cleared and the temperature risen to 30°C by this time.

After lunch, we comfortably covered the last 40 miles into town with the town starting about 9 miles out from the hotel. Unfortunately, we did not pass a “Welcome to Springfield” sign or any Simpson statues or donuts.

We reached the hotel just before 2:30pm after having ridden 117.6km in 5hrs 44m at an average speed of 29.7km/h. The temperature had also hit 32°C but we again avoided all the rain and thunderstorms in the area. The road rolled gently all day up and down.

As tomorrow is a rest day, rap for Sunday was held at 4pm today. We are scheduled for breakfast after 7am and luggage load at 9am as it is only a 79 odd mile day. The forecast is for much cooler weather, head winds and showers. Hopefully this changes.

For dinner, we walked down the road to a Bob Evans restaurant which had bottomless blueberry or banana bread. We had chicken and turkey followed by pie.    

Numbers for the day:
Departure time: 5:48am
Distance: 106.0 miles (117.6km)
Riding time: 5hrs 44m
Average speed: 18.5 mph (29.7km/h)
Maximum speed: 35.1mph (56.5km/h)
Vertical climbing: 2,516ft (767m)
Temperature range: 16-32°C
Arrival time: 2:24pm
Weekly (Monday – Sunday mileage) to date: 560 miles (902km)
Total kilometres ridden to date / approximate kilometres to go: 3,465km / 2,097km
Rolling last seven days total kilometres ridden including today: 1,246km