We had a late start today, since the weather reports seemed a little ominous. Given our experiences over the past few days, we didn’t want to take any chances. We decided to pack the vans early, send them to our destination in Jacksonville, IL and then wait for them to return to Clinton just in case we needed to be shuttled through bad weather. Thankfully, not a drop of rain came down on us all day.
We finally departed around 9am, even with some dark clouds in the sky. My team of Chris, James, Jess, Ben, and I decided to be Team Barnyard, each of us intimidating a barn yard animal for the entire day. Apparently I do a pretty mean cow, so I found myself mooing at every pasture we passed. With the heavy rain over the past few days, we passed a few flooded areas, including a soccer field with only the top of the goals and the scoreboard visible. One of the roads we had planned to take was flooded out, sending us on a short detour. Overall, however, the day was easy, with sweeping fields and picturesque skies. The sounds of animals (from the team, not the fields) also helped pass the time.
Near the end of the day, we passed a major milestone – we came across a sign marking 90 degrees longitude, which is one-fourth the way west around the world. It was really cool, especially because we are also about a fourth the way through our journey across the country.
We rode as a team into Jacksonville, where a large group of supporters at Illinois College came out to greet us with cheers, food, and t-shirts. The campus is beautiful, our hosts are gracious, and it was great to sleep in real beds again. We head into St. Louis tomorrow, signifying our passage into the west – we can’t wait!
-Daniel Ingram
We finally departed around 9am, even with some dark clouds in the sky. My team of Chris, James, Jess, Ben, and I decided to be Team Barnyard, each of us intimidating a barn yard animal for the entire day. Apparently I do a pretty mean cow, so I found myself mooing at every pasture we passed. With the heavy rain over the past few days, we passed a few flooded areas, including a soccer field with only the top of the goals and the scoreboard visible. One of the roads we had planned to take was flooded out, sending us on a short detour. Overall, however, the day was easy, with sweeping fields and picturesque skies. The sounds of animals (from the team, not the fields) also helped pass the time.
Near the end of the day, we passed a major milestone – we came across a sign marking 90 degrees longitude, which is one-fourth the way west around the world. It was really cool, especially because we are also about a fourth the way through our journey across the country.
We rode as a team into Jacksonville, where a large group of supporters at Illinois College came out to greet us with cheers, food, and t-shirts. The campus is beautiful, our hosts are gracious, and it was great to sleep in real beds again. We head into St. Louis tomorrow, signifying our passage into the west – we can’t wait!
-Daniel Ingram
1 comment:
Don't 'intimidate' too many animals now, they might run away,you need to eat them. (I know you meant to say 'imitate')
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